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HISTORY 



THE WHIG PARTY, 



OR 



SOME OF ITS MAIN FEATURES; 



A HURRIED GLANCE AT THE FORMATION OF PARTIES IN THE 

UNITED STATES, AND THE OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY 

OF THE PRINCIPAL PARTIES OF THE COUNTRY 

TO THE PRESENT TIME, ETC. ETC. 



R. McKINLEY ORMSBY. 



" It should be the peculiar care of Great Britain to foster divisions between 
the North and South." John Henry, Hie British Emisscuy. 



SECOND EDITION. 

BOSTON: 
CROSBY, NICHOLS & COMPANY, 

NEW YORK: H. DEXTER AND COMPANY. 
18 60. 



vi ft 2. 33 



Entered according to Act of Congress, kr'the year 1859, by 

n. Mckinley ormsby, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Vermont. 



Transfer 
Engineers School Ubjf. 
June 29,1931 



PRINTER BY 
GZiO. C. KAMI) & AVEKY. 



Stereotyped by 
HOBART & BOBBINS, 

INCLASD TYPE AND STEHFOTVTF I0DNDIBT, 
BOSTON. 



PREFACE 



The object of the writer of these hasty sketches 
has been to give the outlines of the principal 
parties that have existed in the United States 
to the present day, and notice the more impor- 
tant and leading measures of the various admin- 
istrations of the general government. Of the 
administrations prior to that of President Jack- 
son he speaks according to the impressions he 
has received from reading and tradition ; but of 
the politics since Jackson's day, with which he 
has been contemporary, he speaks from personal 
observation, and gives his own views as to pub- 
lic men and measures. He is aware that his 
outlines are very imperfect, and in many things 
may be erroneous. He has had no access to 
libraries, nor public documents ; and his statis- 




PBEFACE. 

tics are sometimes given from general recol- 
lection, and are but approximations to accuracy. 
But feeling that some history of the parties of 
this country is needed, he has the temerity to 
offer this till its place shall be supplied by one 
more reliable and satisfactory. 

THE AUTHOB. 

Bradford, Vermont, Aug., 1859. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION, page ix 

CHAPTER I. — Political parties prior to and during the Revolution. — The section- 
alism which caused the separation. — The conservatism and policy of William 
Pitt, the £lder. — The effect of the Revolution on parties. — The incongruity of the 
different colonies, 13 

CHAPTER II. — The persistence of England in her revenue acts unites the colonies. 
— Action of Virginia and South Carolina. — The formation of the union by the 
adoption of the Constitution. — The difficulties in the way of a union. — Probable 
results in case there had been no union. — The sacrifice of the large and gain of 
the smaller states by the union. — Constitutional convention. — The part taken by 
Virginia in establishing the union, 21 

CHAPTER III. — The elements of political parties developed during the administra- 
tion of Washington. — Method of electing the president by the college of electors 
provided by the Constitution, and the failure of the system. — The effect of the 
French revolution in creating parties in the United States. — Some of the causes 
of the failure of the French revolution, 29 

CHAPTER IV. — The American government formed on the principles of the Eng- 
lish constitution, modified to suit our republican condition. — Narrow escape from 
the contagion of French Jacobinism. — The Federalists in favor of the Constitution 
as adopted. — The anti-Federalists. — The Federalists and Republicans, ... 36 

CHAPTER V. — Jefferson the founder of the Republican party. — The decline of 
the Federal party. — Washington's retirement and farewell address. — John 
Adams' election in 1796. — Treatment of the United States by England. — Im- 
pressment of seamen. — The neutral policy of the federal administration, etc., 47 

CHAPTER VI. — John Adams' administration. — His part in the establishment of 
the American constitutions. — The providentially fortunate concurrence of events 
that favored the freedom of America, and the growth of her free institutions. — 
Defeat of the Federalists by the Republicans in 1800. — Commercial prosperity of 
America during the administration of Adams. — Jefferson's policy as to com- 
merce, 55 

CHAPTER VII. — Jefferson's administration and conservatism. — Reflections on the 
doctrine of instruction. — Foreign intrigues in regard to America. — European 
nations desired her independence out of fear for the increasing power of England, 
and were opposed to the permanence of republican, institutions here out of fear of 
the example. — Reasons why America has been exempt from European inter- 
ference. — That the permanency of republicanism here must eventually subvert 
monarchy in Europe felt to be certain. — Republicanism in America only to be 
preserved by union. — Foreigners will sooner see us broken in pieces by leaving us 
alone, than attempting our destruction by force, 64 

CHAPTER VIII. — Federal principles of neutrality continued by Jefferson. — He 
was charged with partiality for France. — Party spirit of those days. — The pur- 
chase of Louisiana. — Resistance of British aggressions. — Violent opposition to 
the administration in New England. — Hostility of the North to the South mani- 
fested. — Anti-slavery feeling in New England in 1796. — Vindictive spirit of 
Northern philanthropists at the period of the formation of the government. — 
What the South, under the circumstances, ought to be tolerated in attempting. — 
Compromises in the Constitution in regard to slavery. — Anti-slavery in New 
England borrowed from the designing enemies of our country in old England. — 
England, on failing to enslave our forefathers,' at once commenced teaching them 

1* (5) 



VI CONTENTS. 

the principles of negro freedom and equality. — Her object in this. — Effect 
of her writers on Americans. — Abolition of the slave-trade, it was thought, 
would put an end to slavery in the United States, and render the cultivation of 
cotton in the East Indies profitable, etc., , . . . 74 

CHAPTER IX. — Factiousness of the Federal party, and its opposition to the war- 
measures, cause of its ruin. — Attempt of England to destroy American com- 
merce. — Impressment of seamen and their treatment. — Orders in council and 
French decrees. — Blockade. — Damage to American commerce. — French and 
British parties in the U. S. — American commerce in the North. — The Chesa- 
peake affair. — Embarrassing condition of the government. — Jefferson's course, 
etc., 8S 

CHAPTER X. — The protectors of New England commerce and of the honor of the 
country found in the South and West. — The embargo. — The election of Mr. 
Madison. — The destruction of commerce occasioned by British orders in council 
charged to the embargo. — Resistance of the embargo in New England. — State 
rights and nullification in Massachusetts. — John Henry sent by England to foment 

disunion His despatches. — The Erskine treaty. — Non-intercourse. — Course of 

England, 102 

CHAPTER XI. — England cooperated with New England to render the administra- 
tion of the Republicans odious. — Enormous losses to American commerce. — 
War declared June 18, 1812. — Course of the Federalists. — Men of the twelfth 
Congress. — Crawford, Calhoun, Randolph, Clay, etc., 113 

CHAPTER XII. — Federal ascendency in New England and New York. — Conduct 
of the Federalists. — Prosecution of the war embarrassed by them. — Hartford 
convention. — Reverses at Detroit and on the Canadian frontier. — Thirteenth 
Congress. — Factiousness of the Federalists. — Henry Clay's castigation of Josiah 
Quiucy. — War continued. — The Northern -pulpit. — Triumph of American arms, 
and the glory of our naval triumphs. — Peace of 1S11. — American honor vindi- 
cated, and her name respected throughout the world, 122 

CHAPTER XIII. — The Federal party annihilated, but the measures of the ancient 
Federalists revived. — The navy, the bank, and the tariff. — Politics heretofore had 
been based on the foreign policy of the country ; after the war, turned more on 
domestic policy. — Internal improvements, 129 

CHAPTER XIV. — Mr. Monroe elected in 181G and 1820.— Extinction of party 
spirit. — Monroe's cabinet. — Republicans support bank, internal improvements, 
tariff, and navy. — Measures of Mr. Clay. — Mr. Crawford's presidential expec- 
tations. — Henry Clay's. — J. C. Calhoun's. — Andrew Jackson's. — Tariff of 1816 
and 1324. — Southern jealousies, etc., 135 

CHAPTER XV. — English policy and prosperity. — National independence. — Brit- 
ain dependent on America for the raw material for her manufactures, without 
which her commerce could not exist. — This dependence forced the peace of 1SU. 
— Her efforts to relieve herself. — Her Indian colonies cannot compete with slave 
labor in the United States. — Her attempts to overthrow slavery. — Slave-trade 
and anti-slavery. — Effect of her anti-slavery crusade in the United States. — 
Missouri controversy. — Anti-slavery feeling in New England artificial. — Slavery 
a necessity to the South. — The negro. — Negro servitude an instrumentality in 
the hands of Providence for the civilization of the world. — Effect of servitude 
upon the negro. — Right of Congress to exclude a new state on account of its 
tolerating slavery, etc., . . . 142 

CHAPTER XVI. — Spread of anti-slavery views in the North. — Influence of Eng- 
land. — When made a party question the slavery issues must necessarily render 
parties sectional. — Claim of anti-slavery men. — Absurdity of the fear of the 
extension of slavery into new territories. — Cannot compete with white labor, 
saving under the protection of a Southern sun. — Exclusion of slaves from terri- 
tories adapted to their labor cruelty to them. — White labor will in time assume 
its own domains, including Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. — Slavery limited to 
• its legitimate theatre. — Hypocrisy of England. — Her selfish purposes and crafty 
policy. — Anti-slavery misrepresentations published in America by British gold. — 
The abominable wickedness of such false representations. — False views of negr -* 
inculcated. — Slaveholders traduced, etc., loJ 



CONTENTS. VII 

CHAPTER XVII. — John Quincy Adams secretary of state under Monroe. — Desig- 
nated by Monroe for his successor. —Presidential aspirants. — Congressional 
caucus nominations. — Mr. Crawford's nomination. — Martin Van Buren, Jackson 
and Calhoun. — No election by the people. — Election by the House. — Adams 
elected by Clay and his friends. — Party spirit revived. — Friends of Clay and 
Adams unite in a party. — The Whig party. — .lacksonism and its success. — 
Administration of J. Q. Adams. — Change of New England on question of 
tariff. — Change in the South. — Election of Jackson. — J. C. Calhoun vice- 
president, etc., 173 

CHAPTER XVIII. — Party principles undergo a change. — Whigs adhere to the 
measures of Madison and Monroe. — Jackson proposes to restore Jeffersonian 
principles. — Kitchen cabinet. — Martin Van -Buren. — New tactics. — Leading 
Democrats. — Whigs. — Measures of the Whigs. — Political idolatry. — Causes 
of Jackson's success, 185 

CHAPTER XIX. — Mr. Van Buren's supposed aspirations. — Quarrel between Cal- 
houn and Jackson, how produced, and object. — Cabinet remodelled. — Van Buren 
appointed minister to England, and appointment not confirmed by Senate. — Jack- 
son's administration. — South Carolina resists the tariff. — Position of that state 
on the question of secession. — Debate in the U. S. Senate, and Webster's reply to 
Col. Hayne. — Daniel Webster and his character. — His demolition of the nullifi- 
cation and higher-law doctrine, etc., 195 

CHAPTER XX. — Effect of Jackson's election on the protective system. — Clay 
ambitious for the presidency. — He had forced the tariff system as an issue on 
Jackson. — Webster's ambition. — Jackson did not neglect his opponents. — Whig 
national convention, Dec, 1831. — Party platform. — Clay candidate. — Campaign 
of 1832. — United States Bank question. — Jackson reelected. — Van Buren vice- 
president, etc., 209 

CHAPTER XXI. — South Carolina nullification ordinance. — The higher-law fanat- 
icism of South Carolina considered. — The resolution of a people to resist a law 
of the land an evidence of the want of a Christian spirit. — The approval of the 
individual not necessary to render a law binding on his conscience. — Exemption 
from the force of the laws of society by appeal to higher laws a badge of Pagan- 
ism. — The American doctrine, etc., 218 

CHAPTER XXII. —South Carolina ordinance too late. — The fate of the tariff 
settled by the election. — Jackson's course in regard to South Carolina. — Sustained 
by Webster. — Course of Calhoun. — Compromise act. — Revolution of measures 
during Jackson's administration. — His administration further considered. — 
This country no foreign or domestic policy. — True policy for us. — Excess of im- 
ports, and effect. — Commerce without manufactures will exhaust the country. — 
Without the labor employed on the raw material obtained from the United Suites, 
British commerce would be comparatively small. — Polly of exporting our raw 
material to build up a rival, when it might give America the monopoly of the 
commerce of the world. — British system. — Her ambition to produce the raw 
material. — The insane idea of the South that England is to be her only market 
for cotton suicidal to the country, etc., 227 

CHAPTER XXIII. — Mistaken policy of the United States. — Our superior advan- 
tages for supplying the trade of the world. — Having the raw material, we could 
absolutely command that trade. — Expense of England for cotton. — The employ- 
ment it gives her people. — How she pays us for it. — To what ?he is indebted for 
her commercial superiority. — The folly of America. — British profits on our raw 
cotton. — Her exports. — Her preaching and practice in regard to free trade. — 
Our sectional quarrels ruinous. — Interest of all sections the same. — Unless the 
South soon secure a market for her cotton in the North, by helping to build ui> 
manufactories that may consume her crops, she may find it too late. — England 
an enemy of the South. — She encourages secession or disunion, that would eithi r 
render that section a colony of England, or overthrow slave-labor. — Probable effect 
of a dismemberment, etc., 248 



VIII CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIV. —Power of ideas. — Commercial superiority of England, how 
attained and preserved. — Advantages of America seen by England. — Her 
policy in regard to the United States. — Disunion the only possible means of 
preventing this country from eventually enjoying the trade now enjoyed by Eng- 
land. — Her schemes. — Her slavery question. — Her sacrifices in the West 
Indies. — Iler labors injurious to the negro. — Alison on emancipation in the 
West Indies. — Missionary movement in the West Indies. — Civilization of 
negroes arrested by emancipation. — Effect of West Indian emancipation on the 
United States. — Simultaneous efforts of British abolitionists in the United States, 
-r- Result not the same as in the West Indies, and the reasons. — Incendiary pub- 
lications and petitions in 1835 and 1836. — Anti-slavery operations of those days 
instigated abroad. — Course of Southern men in those days- — Remarks of Mr. 
Clay on the objects of the abolitionists. — New England duped by Old England, 

258 

CHAPTER XXV. — Campaign of 1835, 1836. — Currency question. — Retrograde 
revolution of the democracy. — The new system brought about by Van Buren to 
insure his succession. — Van Buren elected. — Speeches of Webster. — Commer- 
cial revulsion of 1837, and causes. — Benton's Thirty Years' View. — Van Buren's 
sub-treasury scheme. — Traits of the administration. — Speeches of Clay and 
Webster on the sub-treasury. — John C. Calhoun and his reconciliation with the 
Democratic party, etc., 278 

CHAPTER XXVI. — Campaign of 1840. — Harrison and availability. — Tyler vice- 
president. — Death of Harrison, and Tyler's presidency. — Resignation of the 
cabinet. — Sub-treasury, United States Bank, and tariff of 1842. — Webster, 
secretary of state, retains his seat till 1842. — Treaty of Washington, etc., . . 292 

CHAPTER XXVII. — Campaign of 1844.— Henry Clay and James K. Polk.— 

Annexation of Texas. — Polk's election. — Freesoil candidates. — Interest of 
England in Polk's election. — Tariff of 1842 repealed. — Tariff of 1846. —Mexi- 
can war the great measure of Polk's administration. — Credit gained by Whig 
generals reconciled the Whig party to the war. — General Taylor popular with 
the democracy. — Availability again tried. — Political principles by Whigs but 
little mooted — The abolition spirit aroused. — Van Buren the abolition candidate 
in 1848. — Cass democratic candidate. — The Freesoilers puzzled, but Van Buren 
gets a large vote. — Taylor elected. — Millard Fillmore vice-president. — Taylor's 
death. — Fillmore president. — W. II. Seward. — His only hopes for reaching the 
presidency through the triumph of sectionalism. — Increase of freesoilism, etc., 

298 

CHAPTER XXVITL — Campaign of 1852 the last Whig campaign. — Causes of the 
ruin of the Whig party. — Slavery issue. — Propagation of anti-slavery feelings 
in the North. — Hatred of slavery applied to negro servitude by the ignorant. — 
Alienation of the North from the South. — Fugitive laws of 1793 and 1850, etc., 

314 

CHAPTER XXIX. — The acquisition of new territory occasioned the increase of 
■ freesoilism. — Action of the South. — Secession meditated. — J. C. Calhoun's 
speech and position. — Controversies in regard to California, New Mexico and 
Utah. — The Wilmot proviso. — Disunion imminent. — Compromise measures of 
Mr. Clay. — Webster's seventh of March speech. — California prefers free-labor. 
— Slavery found to be a question of climate. — Compromise measures pass. — The 
fugitive slave law. — New England offended at Webster for favoring that law. — 
Change of the popular mind, and the ancient feeling on the subject, etc., . . 329 

CHAPTER XXX. — Campaign of 1852. — The platforms of the two parties. — Ad- 
ministration of Pierce. — Douglas and the Nebraska measure. — Efforts in the 
North. — Republican party. — Nominations and election of '56. — Cincinnati con- 
vention. — Fremont. — Election of Buchanan. — His administration, etc., . . 345 

CHAPTER XXXI. — The Republican, American and Democratic parties. — Their 
features and characteristics. — Democratic the only national party. — Necessity 
of a national conservative opposition, without which that party must soon become 
sectional. — Whig principles and the spirit of the old Whig party considered. — 
The necessity of the revival of the Whig party, etc., 354 



INTRODUCTION 



The origin of political parties which have existed 
in this country cannot well be understood without 
a recurrence to the events and circumstances in the 
mother country from which many of our political 
principles took their rise. Many of the principles 
considered when our forefathers established the in- 
stitutions they bequeathed to us were, at different 
times, the subjects of agitation in England before 
the American Revolution commenced. If the 
Anglo-Americans are truly the descendants of the 
ancient Saxons, the American Revolution only had 
the effect of restoring to the race the primitive but 
greatly modified independence it enjoyed upon the 
shores of the Baltic. The subjugation of the Sax- 
ons in England by the Normans (a conquest of 
filibusters by fillibusters), and the establishment in 
that island of the Feudal System, was a reduction 
of our ancient ancestors to a pretty severe state of 
bondage, As in the process of ages the Saxon blood 
so flourished as to check the power of that haughty 
line of iron rulers, a greater degree of liberty and 

(IX) 



X INTRODUCTION. 

freedom was gradually acquired. All such acquisi- 
tions, or rights and immunities, by the commonalty 
of Old England extorted from their lordly masters, 
were usually secured by solemn writings, called 
charters, constitutions, etc. The freedom of speech; 
"the liberty of conscience in matters of religion ; 
the principles of taxation and representation ; the 
right of jury trial ; the right of relief from arbitrary 
imprisonment by writ of habeas corpus ; and very 
many other principles considered and guarded by 
our constitutions, had their birth in the British isle, 
and were brought to this continent by the early set- 
tlers. To see the Saxons thus gradually make their 
feudal lords relax their tyranny, and by degrees 
break up that uncouth system of military tenures, 
and to see them secure those great principles 
of civil liberty so rarely enjoyed by mankind, was 
to witness the triumphs of more than an ordinary 
race. The ancient Britons, who were subdued by 
the Roman arms, and held in subjection for some 
four hundred years, were by that subjugation and 
dominion rendered spiritless and helpless. Scarcely 
a family of the old Sclavonic race has ever made 
much progress, but take the servile as a normal con- 
dition. The pure Celtic race has ever been slow in 
the development of the principles of popular sov- 
ereignty. But the Saxon is an aspiring blood. The 
tutelage it has received and is receiving from the 
Norman, — a kindred, but for a long time in military 
discipline a superior people, — though rough and 
severe, may, under Providence, prove an instrumen- 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

tality of good. Without it the Saxon would but 
slowly have thrown off his primitive barbarous filli- 
buster state, so as to have emerged from England in 
a different condition from that in which his ancestors, 
under Hengist, entered it. The nomads that for 
centuries wandered over the vast plains of Scythia, 
and in process of time were crowded upon the coasts 
of north-western Europe, entered Britain as metal 
enters a mould, to receive the form and impress 
suitable for the purposes they were designed to sub- 
serve. To subdue the nomadic habits of a race, 
and imbue it with feelings, capacities, aptitudes, 
sympathies, and the principles of nationality,- and fit 
it for civil liberty, is no small undertaking, and 
requires not only severe discipline, but also time. 
From the conquest of England by William the Nor- 
man, about the twelfth century, to the discovery of 
America, near the dawn of the sixteenth, we see 
that the reformatory rule of tyranny had been 
applied in England with so strong a hand as to very 
much modify the native disposition of the Saxon, 
and he began to experience those national feelings 
which caused him to exult in the idea that he 
had a country. The constant wars for centuries 
with France had contributed to inspire the islander 
with patriotic feelings. And the occasional quarrels 
between the king and the turbulent nobility of early 
ages, enabled the people, by siding with one or the 
other of the parties, to extort from the crown those 
charters which have changed the British government 
from almost an absolute despotism, to a limited, 



XII INTRODUCTION. 

constitutional monarchy. But for several centuries 
the British monarchy submitted to changes but 
gradually, and very reluctantly, and concessions had 
to be many times extorted from the crown before 
they' were sacredly regarded as the inviolable rights 
of the people. The earlier ages of that monarchy 
were devoted more to warlike enterprises than to 
the arts of peace. The susceptibility of the Saxon 
for civilization, as disclosed by his history while 
upon the coast of the Baltic, as well as by the 
administration of Alfred, was quite apparent; but 
the Feudal System, with such masters as the Norman 
brought into England, though well calculated to 
nationalize those migratory tribes, was not well 
adapted to develop the pursuits and arts of civiliza- 
tion. The Saxon upon the Baltic repressed all 
civilizing arts by the dire necessity of his situation, 
and not as a matter of choice ; he was never insen- 
sible to the ameliorating influences of peace and 
social commerce ; but without a government which 
is the gift of mental and moral discipline, such influ- 
ences can never be enjoyed. 

The Saxons were early addicted to the sea, and 
were, in their rude vessels, spirited navigators ; 
under Alfred and his successors they took much 
pride in their fleets ; but England, until after the 
discovery of America, had accomplished but little 
in the way of commerce, or the arts and sciences. 
The early British monarchs were warriors, and are 
prominent in English annals as soldiers; but the 
trades, and those pursuits which now render England 



INTRODUCTION. XIII 

the first of nations, were but little encouraged. The 
earlier kings, for their support, and to defray the 
expenses of their armies, were obliged to resort to 
robbery, and, as a fruitful resource, frequently plun- 
dered the Jews. They had no commerce. Edward 
the Third (about A. D. 1350) began to encourage 
the manufacture of woollen fabrics ; but he prohib- 
ited the exportation of all articles manufactured of 
wool and iron. This shows how crude must have 
been the ideas of the British rulers of those days 
in regard to commerce. The exports and imports 
of England about a century before the discovery of 
America (merely nothing) will show how little tfee 
English had advanced in the arts of peace and civil- 
ization. It was about this time that her vessels 
began to reach the Baltic for the purposes of trade, 
and they did not trade to the Mediterranean until 
about the middle of the next century, or about fifty 
years previous to the discovery of America. But 
the discovery of America, and of the passage to 
India round the Cape of Good Hope, late in the fif- 
teenth century, gave an impetus to commerce ; and 
at about this period modern civilization began to 
take its rise. Since the discovery of America, Eng- 
land herself, in her political as well as in her social 
institutions, has passed through an entire revolution. 
For many hundred years Great Britain was but a 
sort of military despotism, without a king or states- 
man capable of comprehending the principles of 
political economy as practised by civilized nations. 
But commerce is the magic power before the touch 
2 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

of which the harshest features of feudalism have long 
since given away, and its last relics are fast disap- 
pearing. The spirit of feudal aristocracy is anything 
but compatible with what by modern politicians is 
called progress ; and the regulation of the arts, 
trades, and commerce, under her earlier kings, shows 
England, until comparatively a late period, acting in 
defiance of the principles which have in modern 
times, in despite of her rulers, elevated her to the 
first rank in greatness. Her trade has been of slow 
but sure growth. It is interesting to trace its prog- 
ress, as with it came her civilization and power. 
Her first rude statutes, adopted to aid her merchants; 
her efforts to compete with her Dutch rivals, and 
then her naval warfare with those audacious Dutch- 
men, in which the English navy, triumphing over the 
gallant Yan Tromp, laid the foundation of her future 
greatness ; the relaxation of the system of entails 
about the middle of the fifteenth century, by which 
feudalism received a check and commerce an. im- 
petus ; the discovery of America ; the invention of 
the art of printing ; the introduction of the use of 
gunpowder in warfare, by which national difficultie's 
could the more speedily be brought to a close ; and 
the revival of letters ; all are events which, falling out 
nearly in the same century, were the precursors of the 
changes which have been witnessed in modern times. 
The Saxon is certainly a promising race. Its origin 
is involved in mystery, being but an offshoot of the 
still more mysterious German race, from which the 
principal civilization of the present age took its rise. 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

The revival of letters came with the discovery, by 
the German mind, of the press, which at once repro« 
duced the ancient civilizations, and enabled the 
nations to leap from infancy to maturity at a bound; 
and hence the ideas of progress which have so 
startled the thinkers of the present age. But 
although great revolutions have swept over Europe, 
and over England in particular, they were but such 
revolutions as we witness in the vegetable kingdom 
when some coarse sKrub puts forth a bud, the old 
and the new — the rough stock and its blossom — 
remaining inseparably connected and mutually de- 
pendent on each other. In consequence of the 
causes alluded to, England, for many hundred years, 
has been undergoing a change in the spirit of her 
institutions, and the change will continue its progress 
hereafter ; and nature has in the human as well as 
in the vegetable kingdom her subjects so effectually 
under her control, that we may expect the future 
development of the fruits of civilization will proceed 
with that gradual and regular course which shall 
indicate them healthy growths. Hot-bed plants are 
pleasing and luscious, but can only be preserved by 
an artificial atmosphere. In the moral world it is 
not singular that some minds, impatient at what they 
conceive to be the slow advancement, as by a 
natural growth, of ameliorating principles, should 
seek, by stimulating expedients, to hasten their prog- 
ress. But as yet no revolution produced in 
advance of its proper time, by the application of 
such excitants, has been productive of useful fruits. 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

Prior to the commencement of the English colo- 
nies in America political parties had an active 
existence in the mother country, of which the par- 
ties in America, especially during and preceding the 
Revolution, were the offspring. The earliest par- 
ties in England were the gift of religious contro- 
versies, and were, subsequent to the Reformation, 
very violent. One has but to read the history of 
the times of the Cavaliers and Roundheads, or of 
England down to and during the time of the Com- 
monwealth, to see with what rigor party spirit 
reigned in that country. The persecution of those 
who embraced reformatory views in matters of re- 
ligion, under James the First, drove the Puritans to 
Plymouth Rock. The titles of Whig and Tory, 
which have designated the two principal parties in 
England for the last two hundred years, originated 
in the time of Charles the Second. It is not a little 
interesting to trace the history of parties in Great 
Britain ; and in the perusal the reader is struck with 
what he must regard as their providential direction. 
As a general thing the two parties in question have 
been both national and conservative. For much of 
the time during their existence it would be puzzling 
for one to discern the principles that divided them, 
their contests having been more for place, or office, 
than anything else. This is by no means true of 
the whole period during which those parties have 
existed. During the ministries of Grenville, the 
Pitts, and Fox, we find that they were divided on 
important political measures. But what is worthy 






INTRODUCTION. XVII 

of remark is that throughout the whole existence 
of those parties, they have, with scarcely more than 
one exception, been founded on a conservative and 
national basis, and, though at times degenerating 
into mere factions, rarely ever have taken an attitude 
dangerous to the integrity of the British domin- 
ions. With the exception of the Tory measures in 
regard to the American colonies, neither of those 
parties have been sectional, nor composed of one 
class of society as antagonistic to another. In each 
have ever been individuals of all classes. The 
Whigs have in later times been regarded as the most 
liberal ; but the Duke of Monmouth was the first 
Whig, and ever since his day the Whigs have em- 
braced a fair share of the aristocracy. At the revolu- 
tion of 1688, when the bigoted James was divested 
of his crown, and William of Orange placed upon 
the English throne, the masses of Whigs and Tories 
seemed to cooperate. In short, throughout the his- 
tory of these parties, embracing England's history 
for two hundred years, the evidences of their bene- 
ficial effects are apparent. They have been the 
schools in which the greatest statesmen have been 
educated, and the unparalleled prosperity of England 
in modern times has been much owing to their in- 
strumentality. Within proper channels, restrained 
within legitimate, reasonable, and natural limits, 
political parties may be instrumental of good ; but, 
beyond these limits, devastating floods. 



A HISTORY 

OF 

THE WHIG PARTY. 



CHAPTER I. 

POLITICAL PARTIES PRIOR TO AND DURING THE REVOLUTION. — 
THE SECTIONALISM WHICH CAUSED THE SEPARATION. THE CON- 
SERVATISM AND POLICY OF WILLIAM PITT, THE ELDER. THE EFFECT 

OF THE REVOLUTION ON PARTIES. — THE INCONGRUITY OF THE DIF- 
FERENT COLONIES. 

Two large political parties have existed in this 
country nearly from the period of the adoption of the 
Constitution. Since the times of Jefferson, the measures 
of these parties have undergone many changes, and 
many of their respective members have changed sides ; 
but still we can trace in the present Democratic many 
lineaments of the old Republican party ; and the late 
Whig was in many respects the representative of the 
old Federal party. The policy, tactics, and measures, 
have not continued the same, and perhaps the modern 
parties contain but few traits to identify them with their 
predecessors. When the relationship of the modern to 
the ancient parties is spoken of, we have more particular 
reference to their perpetuation as political organizations, 
than to the transmission of party principles. These 

(13) 



14 A HISTORY OP 

two original parties were organized and brought into 
action soon after the adoption of the Constitution, but 
were formed, in part, from elements previously existing-. 
In sketching their origin, we will glance at only some of 
the more prominent events that gave them birth. Dur- 
ing the Revolutionary struggle the old English party 
titles of Whig and Tory were in vogue ; and, at the 
outset of the difficulties that led to that struggle, the 
parties represented by those titles in England and 
America were nearly identical ; but at a later period 
the American Whig and Tory lost all identity with their 
transatlantic namesakes. In this country the title 
Whig came to represent one who was in favor of popu- 
lar rights as opposed to all regal government, while 
that of Tory was applied to those who, although opposed 
to the usurpations of George the Third, were still in 
favor of monarchy, and opposed to the stand for inde- 
pendence taken by the colonies. The Tories of that 
period were, in America, divided into two classes, it is 
true ; viz., those who sided with the ministry of George 
the Third, and those who dissented from that monarch's 
project of taxing the colonies, but still adhered to the 
royal cause during the Revolution. The change in 
the spirit of parties progressed with the Revolution, 
and kept pace with the body which that event produced. 
The American Revolution was not, compared with the 
French, and other revolutions, a very bloody struggle ; 
it was indeed attended with some agony, but was in 
reality but the throe of a great nation in giving birth 
to a child. As we look back upon the conduct of the 
mother country prior to the separation of her colonies 
from her, we see how entirely, in the whole course of 
her proceedings towards them, she was guided by the 



THE WHIG PAETY. If) 

hand of Nature, or of Providence, who had apparently 
foredoomed that separation. As the party politics of 
the United States at the present day are liable to lead 
to as unexpected and undesired results as did those of 
Great Britain which produced the dismemberment of her 
empire, we should often look upon the example of the 
latter as a warning, and endeavor to profit by it. It 
seemed to the British government as reasonable and 
entirely right that her colonies should contribute, by 
way of taxes in some form, to defray the expenses of 
their protection, as it was called. One method, and a 
fruitful one, of raising money in the mother country, 
by way of tax, was by making a law that all paper 
used for commercial, legal, and business purposes, should 
be stamped, and that all contracts, writings, and all 
sorts of obligations used without such stamp, should be 
void. The officers of the crown sold the stamps at 
fixed prices. They were small pieces of paper, on 
which were printed the words, under the picture of the 
royal crown, " Honisoit qui mal ypeme;" and the person 
executing a contract, note of hand, bill of sale, deed, 
will, or other instrument in writing, was obliged to 
paste on one of them, or his writing would be void. It 
was one of the many ways adopted by England to raise 
the necessary funds to defray the enormous expenses 
of her government ; and about the year A. D. 1*764, 
immediately after what in America was called the 
French and Indian war, it was thought advisable to ex- 
tend the stamp system of taxation to this country. The 
colonists remonstrated and protested ; but the American 
Stamp Act passed Parliament with great unanimity, — 
by a majority, in the House of Commons, of about two 
hundred, and in the House of Lords unanimously. The 



16 A HISTORY OF 

conduct of the colonies, in refusing to submit to that tax, 
was regarded by our forefathers across the deep as 
most unnatural, unreasonable, and undutiful. George 
the Third, who incurred so hearty a detestation of our 
ancestors, was not what his more worthy countrymen 
called an immoral man ; he was in all the private walks 
of life regarded as virtuous and upright ; but he had a 
monarch's notions of royal authority, and of the subject's 
duty of obedience. That his people in distant colonies 
should presume to question his power, or the rightful- 
ness of its exercise, excited him strongly against them. 
The ideas of the king were a part of his being ; and, 
although they were his misfortune, perhaps they were 
not his fault. But few men are responsible for their 
opinions. The question of taxing the colonies was one 
that affected all England ; and England generally, at 
first, participated in feelings of indignation at the 
idea that they thus should refuse to submit to taxation. 
Her statesmen, her orators, her jurists, and her writers,, 
with few exceptions, united in putting their rights at 
absolute defiance. The contest soon became sectional, 
and the bitterness between the two portions of the 
British empire became so extreme, that thousands in 
America, who at first were disposed to espouse the side 
of the mother country, were forced to turn against her. 
There were a few intelligent, clear-sighted, and con- 
servative men in England, at that time, who foresaw the 
tendency of the measures, policy, and course, pursued 
by the ministry ; but the warnings of these brave 
patriots were unheeded, or only met with derision. They 
foresaw and predicted that the bitterness likely to be 
engendered between the two portions of the common 
country would lead to a separation, and a final loss of 



THE WHIG PARTY. 17 

the colonies ; and whenever such disunion was thus, in 
spite of the seeming omnipotence of the British throne, 
predicted, the speaker was uniformly made an object of 
ridicule. At that very epoch in English history there 
was in England a statesman whose wisdom had really 
laid the foundations of the unparalleled greatness which, 
notwithstanding the loss of her best colonies, that king- 
dom has since attained. To none more than to William 
Pitt was our ancient mother indebted for the inception 
of a course of policy which has made Britain one of the 
greatest of modern powers. Had his views been re- 
garded by his countrymen, the British empire would 
long since have been the greatest, and altogether the 
most powerful and magnificent, the world has ever seen. 
Pitt was the first of English statesmen ; he was more 
than a century in advance of his age ; his penetrating 
mind saw clearly the advantages, in a commercial point 
of view, of the position of Great Britain and he under- 
stood better than any of his cotemporaries the real 
resources of his country, and in what her true wealth 
and power were to consist. He gave the impetus and 
direction to her commercial system, which all the 
blunders of later statesmen, and all the impediments 
thrown in its way by ignorance and folly, have not been 
able to arrest. The colonial system of England Mr. 
Pitt regarded as the right arm of her power, without 
which her commerce, for which she seemed designed by 
nature, could never be developed. Under his adminis- 
tration the Canadas were added to the crown ; and, had 
his prudent counsels been heeded, it is very clear that 
the loss of the American colonies would not have taken 
place. But what signifies the voice of wisdom when 
opposed to the prevailing sentiment, or passion, or ideas 



18 A HISTORY OF 

of a nation ? His sense of right, justice, prudence, and 
expediency for his country, prompted him to stand up 
almost alone in the British Parliament, and resist the 
first steps of that power in a course that was to cost 
England the most valuable portion of her empire ; and, 
by taking such a stand against the settled feeling of his 
day, he placed himself in a small minority, and his great 
wisdom and unparalleled faculties were lost to the ad- 
ministrative service of his country. 

It should always, in reading the history of American 
politics, be borne in mind that, at the time when the 
troubles between England and her colonies commenced, 
those colonies were far from being composed of such 
homogeneous materials as to facilitate their ready union 
into one people. The New England colonists were 
generally religionists ; people of severe morals, and 
disciplined in the school of adversity. They were 
mostly, especially the- first settlers, persons bred in 
poverty, with but little education, saving in scriptural 
matters. The Puritans, in England, were looked upon 
as fanatics. To escape from oppression they sought 
refuge in New England. On the other hand, Virginia 
was settled by a portion of those same Englishmen 
whose religious and political sentiments had driven the 
Puritans from England. Virginia was the most favored 
of the American colonies ; her charter was liberal and 
her grant of territory magnificent. Many of her plant- 
ers were from high families, and, as a general thing, the 
settlers of that colony were of the Anglican church, 
and attached to the English institutions. Maryland, 
also, settled under the auspices of Lord Baltimore, 
received many wealthy planters, who sought asylum 
from religious persecution ; but, as they were Catholics, 



THE WHIG PARTY. 19 

they would not be likely to find much sympathy amongst 
their Protestant neighbors. The Pennsylvania colony, 
commenced under Penn and his followers, who were 
driven from the mother country by harsh usage, was, 
like that of Maryland, exceedingly tolerant of other 
sects, and, like that colony, also received into her midst 
with fraternal affection people of all lands and religions. 
The Carolinas were settlements of English planters, 
commenced under the auspices of the British nobility, 
and were generally attached to the English church, 
saving a moderate mixture of the Huguenots, who in 
early times found their way into the South. New York 
was a mongrel colony. She was in early times settled 
by the Dutch, and was afterwards overrun by Englishmen 
of all degrees and qualities. These settlements, prior 
to the Kevolution, had no political connection, and but 
little intercourse with each other. Their only bond of 
union was through the mother country, to which they 
all hung like clusters of grapes to the parent vine. So 
gracefully and naturally were the colonies attached to 
the mother country, and, left to themselves, so little 
were they adapted to a union amongst themselves, 
that, had it not been for extreme violence from that 
mother country, they would not have been shaken from 
her attachment. But King George had no conception 
of the policy which should govern his administra- 
tion. Pitt saw in England's colonies but the pillars 
of her commerce and manufactures, which should make 
that country the richest and most powerful of nations ; 
but George's minister, Grenville, though accomplished 
and fully equal to the age in which he lived, looked 
upon them with a narrower view. He only saw them 
beneficial in proportion as they could be made tributary 
3 



20 A HISTORY OF 

to the treasury by means of taxation. The death of 
George the Second in 1160, after the conquest of the 
Canadas under the ministry of Pitt, was followed by the 
coronation of George the Third, and the peace of Paris, 
in 1763, brought about through the counsels of Bute, 
and in spite of the wishes of Pitt. In the French war, 
which resulted in the fall of Louisburg, Quebec, and 
the surrender by the French of the Canadas, the Amer- 
icans had truly shown themselves of great service 
to England, and had taught France and Europe fearful 
expectations from the fast growing power of Britain. 
What would have been the career of England, had she 
continued to hold her colonies, can only be imagined ; 
it was perhaps well for the world that the dismember- 
ment took place ; and France was far from censurable 
for seeking her own safety by the only measure that 
could prevent her rival's becoming at once the mistress 
of the world. The French minister (Choiseul) saw, 
better than either North or Grenville, the importance to 
England of the American possessions. In considering 
the early politics of this country, the motives of France 
for intriguing for American freedom should be carefully 
examined into ; for, on account of the interposition of 
that country in our behalf during the Revolution, 
American party politics were sensibly affected, espe- 
cially during the progress of the French Revolution. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PERSISTENCE OF ENGLAND IN HER REVENUE ACTS UNITES THE COLO- 
NIES. ACTION OF VIRGINIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA. THE FORMA- 
TION OF THE UNION BY THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. THE 

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF A UNION. PROBABLE RESULTS IN CASE 

THERE HAD BEEN NO UNION. THE SACRIFICE OF THE LARGE AND 

GAIN OF THE SMALLER STATES BY THE UNION. CONSTITUTIONAL 

CONVENTION. THE PART TAKEN BY VIRGINIA IN ESTABLISHING THE 

UNION. 

The passage of the Stamp Act taught the ministry of 
George the Third two things, by neither of which did 
they seem to have the ability to profit. It taught them 
the great importance of the colonies as consumers of 
English goods, and the spirit with which they were evi- 
dently disposed to meet encroachments on their rights. 
The resistance of the colonists was not regarded at first 
in a serious light ; but the loss of trade with America, 
consequent on that resistance, disclosed the fact that, 
even at that time, the mercantile and manufacturing 
interests had begun to acquire some importance, although 
they had no decisive influence in the administration. 
They, perhaps, contributed greatly to the repeal of the 
odious Stamp Act ; but the infatuated ministry were so 
wedded to their project of taxing America, that the 
Stamp Act was only repealed to give place to other sys- 
tems of taxation. Unlimited submission of refractory 
subjects was the only thing to satisfy a haughty feudal 
monarch, and hence the enforcement of attempted taxa- 



22 , A HISTORY OF 

tion became a matter of pride with the king and his 
ministry. 

The infatuation of the British ministry and king cost 
England the best of her American colonies. But these 
colonies, thus indebted to England's injustice and folly, 
and to the jealousy of France, for their independence, 
were a long time at the mercy of chance, and, unless 
actually under the control of Divine Providence, in- 
debted likewise to the hand of fortune for the true great- 
ness they have since attained. As early as 1776 the 
Americans declared themselves independent of the 
mother country ; and the struggles of the Eevolutionary 
War taught them that mutual dependence on each other 
which well prepared them for the formation of the 
Union, and the adoption of the Constitution under which 
we now live. The colonies, by the war of the Revolu- 
tion, were not attempting to work out schemes of am- 
bition, and but few of those persons who saw the revolu- 
tionary drama successfully closed, had anything like a 
correct idea of the future greatness destined to attend 
their new-born country. The contest between the colo- 
nies and the mother country was a struggle on the part 
of the former for their legal rights, — a battle against 
oppression. In this resistance they were all a unit. 
. Massachusetts had already made wonderful progress 
in every species of prosperity. Upon the ocean and 
the land her commerce had begun to expand, and all 
the trades nourished in her bosom. For virtue, in- 
telligence, and industry, she was in advance of her 
sisters ; and when that first project of taxation, the 
Stamp Act, was put forth, the voice of her intelli- 
gent and manly sons went forth through the land in 
loud remonstrance. But Virginia ! all have heard of the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 23 

electric shock which that colony sent through the con- 
tinent ! Patrick Henry drew the resolves which her 
House of Burgesses passed, declaring, in effect, that the 
Stamp Act was not binding on the colonies, and that, 
without representation in the British Parliament, that 
legislature had no authority to ta,x America. These re- 
solves found a cordial response in every colony, and 
on none did they fall with more animating effect than on 
Massachusetts. In the threatened conflict Massachu- 
setts had much to encounter, and her brave sons felt no 
common joy when they heard from Virginia in thunder- 
tones such a bold defiance hurled at the tyrants over 
the deep. It was truly said that " Virginia gave the sig- 
nal for the continent.' 7 Massachusetts was not insen- 
sible to the nobleness of Virginia patriotism. In those 
days, no matter in what section of this land he was born 
or bred, every true American's heart thrilled with one 
sentiment, and all united in the conflict with the oppres- 
sor with a kindred spirit. Massachusetts was the first 
to suggest the idea of an American Congress to unite 
on means of redress, but South Carolina was the first 
to appoint delegates. The spirit of resistance was 
everywhere, and the concert of action necessary to ren- 
der that resistance effectual was attained ; and, after 
the most glorious struggle the world has ever seen, the 
colonies in IT 83 became what they had declared them- 
selves to be — Independent States. 

The Constitution of the United States was perfected 
and adopted in IT 88. The Federalists of that day were 
iiot precisely the party that afterwards went by that 
name. Of the questions before the American people, on 
the adoption of the Constitution, it is impossible here 
to give any adequate account. The greater portion of 
3* 



24 A HISTORY OP 

the most prominent American statesmen manifested the 
deepest solicitude for the formation of the Union of the 
American States, by the adoption of the Constitution. 
France had evidently aided the colonies to achieve their 
independence with a view to the formation of a close 
and profitable connection with them, as well as for the 
purpose of abridging the increasing power of England. 
Should the states, after becoming independent and 
sovereign, remain separate, and each under its own 
control, they would, it was feared, become a prey to 
European powers, until civil war, superinduced by for- 
eign intrigues, and the clashing of internal interests, 
should overwhelm them in ruin. There was but one 
hope ; that was felt by every statesman and patriot to 
be in union. Washington's great and patriotic heart 
was deeply enlisted in the measure. It was hard to 
form a constitution that would give perfect satisfaction 
to all sections of the country, and much was yielded, 
by way of mutual concession, out of a patriotic desire 
to secure to posterity the liberty which had cost so 
much treasure and blood. Although the Constitution 
had the support of Washington, and the greater part 
of the most prominent patriots whose labors and coun- 
sels had guided the colonies through the Eevolution, it 
had, nevertheless, many powerful opponents. The 
most eloquent advocates in its favor, whose writings 
have come down to us, were, perhaps, the authors of 
the Federalist — Jay, Hamilton, and Madison. As the 
opinions of those who took part in the discussions upon 
the formation and adoption of the Constitution were 
regarded in the political party organizations which sub- 
sequently came into existence, it is clear that any one 
who would thoroughly comprehend the origin of politi- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 25 

cal parties in the United States should look attentively 
into the history of that interesting period. The period 
was truly an interesting one, and it is feared that we 
are too little accustomed to revert to it for lessons of 
political wisdom and patriotism. Do we not show too 
great a disposition to be governed by considerations 
of the present, with too little regard to the past and 
future ? It may be safely asserted that the statesman 
who, in shaping his political theories, shall disregard 
the landmarks afforded by the past, will never prove a 
safe counsellor for the state. 

At the commencement of the Revolution there were 
none but colonial governments. The colonies, in 1*7*76, 
declared themselves states, after which there was noth- 
ing, excepting the Confederation, but state governments 
until the adoption of the United States Constitution in 
1*788. The Congress, which was formed by delegates 
from the different states, having no power, saving 
what those states voluntarily accorded to it, continued 
its patriotic labors from 1*7*74 till the adoption of the 
Articles of Confederation in 1*781. By the Articles of 
Confederation no general government was formed, with 
power to raise armies, levy taxes and imposts, regulate 
commerce, or otherwise provide for the general safety 
and well-being of the whole country. The Congress, 
as constituted under the Articles of Confederation, could 
recommend measures necessary for such purposes ; but 
each state was independent, and there was no compul- 
sory power to insure compliance with the congressional 
recommendations. The revolutionary struggle ended 
in 1*783, and for a few years the states attempted to 
proceed under the Confederation, but were soon dis- 
couraged, and fearful apprehensions were entertained 



26 A HISTORY OF 

by the patriots of those days for the future welfare of 
the country. Considering the original diversity as to 
manners, habits, customs, religion and caste, of the 
people of the different colonies, it could not have been 
expected that they would all readily merge into a gen- 
eral government which should absorb all their nation- 
ality ; nor could such a consummation, have been possi- 
ble, but for the fraternal feelings inspired by their long 
and united resistance to the mother country. It is true 
that there were multitudes in those days who were op- 
posed to the Union as finally formed ; and there were 
many who were not in favor of any union at all, but 
would leave each state a sovereign power. And had 
there been no union, this must of course have been the 
case. No one capable of a slight degree of reflection 
can fail to see that the result, in such an event, must 
have been disastrous in the extreme. Here would have 
been a cluster of republics ; but the kind feelings en- 
gendered by their common efforts for liberty might not 
have endured forever, and probably would not ; as, 
under the relationship of a closer tie, the states are not 
always in the best of harmony with each other. Each 
state would, as a sovereign power, have required navies, 
armies, and foreign ministers ; and, in the regulation of its 
trade and commerce, would have had its peculiar scheme 
of duties. Had there been no union effected, and had 
no foreign intrigues ensued to subvert the independence 
of one or all of the states, the result must in time have 
been an absorption of all the smaller by a few large 
ones, which, being situated favorably for commerce, 
would have received a monstrous growth. 

In the formation of the Union, the surrender of ambi 
tion, and of transcendent prospects, was wholly on. the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 27 

part of the larger and commercial states. The small 
states had nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by 
the union ; but, for the larger ones, such as Massachu- 
setts, New York, and Virginia, with their Atlantic 
positions and large territories, to enter such union, 
placing themselves on a par with the least, was a step 
that might require some estimate of the gains to accrue 
therefrom. The gains were duly estimated, and those 
states, with the others, met, by their delegates, at 
Philadelphia, on the second Tuesday of May, 118*7, and 
continued their session until the 11th of September, be- 
fore they could agree upon a Constitution, under which 
they were willing to become merged in a national gov- 
ernment. In that Convention, fortunately, were some 
of the first statesmen and patriots of the revolutionary 
period. The Convention was presided over by George 
Washington, who threw his whole soul into its objects. 
Virginia had other distinguished men in that body, 
such as James Madison, Edmund Kandolph, and George 
Wythe. From Pennsylvania were Benjamin Franklin, 
Robert Morris, George Clyrner, and others of talent 
and note. From New York were Alexander Ham- 
ilton, John Lansing, and Robert Yates. John Rut- 
ledge, the Pinckneys, and Pierce Butler, were there 
from South Carolina ; Roger Sherman and Oliver Ells- 
worth from Connecticut ; and Elbridge Gerry, Rufus 
King, and Caleb Strong, from Massachusetts. In short, 
the members from all the colonies were prominent men. 
Minutes of the debates of the Convention were kept by 
Mr. Madison, and they form one of the most interesting 
works we have connected with the origin of our gov- 
ernment. The labor upon the hands of that Convention 
was the most weighty and important probably that ever 



28 A HISTORY OF 

devolved upon mortal faculties. The selection of men 
for that labor was fortunate. It seems as though the 
Deity inspired Virginia to send Washington, as nothing 
could have been more fit than for that truly great and 
good man to preside at such a convention. Virginia 
was not only among the first to adopt the Constitution, 
but she did more than any other state for the formation 
of the Union. At the close of the Eevolution she owned 
all the north-western territory, now comprising many 
flourishing and powerful states, and voluntarily surren- 
dered it to the general government, as an act of justice 
to her sisters, and as a consideration for the formation 
of some closer union. But, notwithstanding the preca- 
rious situation of the states at that time, and the deep 
anxiety of the greatest and best men then living, and, 
notwithstanding the general good feeling pervading all 
the states, it was with the greatest difficulty that the 
delegates could agree on a Constitution. It«is said 
that the Convention was several times on the point of 
breaking up and dispersing in despair. But, finally, 
after a session of months, the Constitution that was 
subsequently adopted, was agreed upon, and transmit- 
ted to the old Congress for submission to the states for 
approval. It is certainly an astonishing production ; 
but while we read its provisions with grateful attention, 
we should not forget that many of its choicest principles 
were the gifts of our ancient English ancestors. Our 
Constitution was, fortunately, modelled on the British 
constitution, so modifying the latter as to suit on.r 
situation and condition. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 29 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL PARTIES DEVELOPED DUPING THE ADMIN- 
ISTRATION OF WASHINGTON. METHOD OF ELECTING THE PRESIDENT 

BY THE COBLEGE OF ELECTORS PROVIDED BY THE CONSTITUTION, 

AND THE FAILURE OF THE SYSTEM. THE EFFECT OF THE FRENCH 

REVOLUTION IN CREATING PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. SOME 

OF THE CAUSES OF THE FAILURE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

The Constitution of the United States was adopted in 
1788, and Washington's administration commenced in 
March, 1789. Washington was unanimously chosen 
president by the college of electors. Political parties 
were not fully developed during his administration, al- 
though, as we shall see, their elements, during that 
period, began to manifest themselves. The college of 
electors, as constituted under the Constitution, answered 
the purpose for which it was designed at the first presi- 
dential elections ; but soon it became a useless piece of 
machinery. It was judged by the wise framers of the 
Constitution that if the election of the chief executive 
of the nation were left to the voice of the mass of the 
people, demagogues might triumph over modest and 
meritorious statesmen. They had the experience of the 
past ages of the world to warrant them in this belief. 
In Greece and Eome, and every other land, where there 
had been liberty enough to call for elections at all, the 
prejudices and passions of the masses had invariably 
prevailed over the wisdom and patriotism of the few. 
Ambition, in all ages of the world, has always clothed 



30 a HISTORY OF 

itself in a winning garb. Under pretensions of friend- 
ship for the people, the fiercest tyrants of old won their 
way to power. What though a few could always see 
through the ambitious designs of an aspiring dema- 
gogue ? Has it not ever been the case that the less 
fortunate and less intelligent portions of the people 
have been influenced uniformly by the pretensions of 
those seeking their suffrages ? And, as merit and worth 
are usually modest and unassuming, and %s corrupt 
ambition is brazen and pretending, it is not so strange 
that demagogues are generally the surest to succeed, 
in the race of popularity, with the people. The prem- 
ises and conclusions here are undoubtedly correct, as 
they are borne out by all history ; but woe to the poli- 
tician who should dare to assert them ! Eepublican 
governments have uniformly been destroyed by dema- 
gogism ; and it was not singular that our fathers, in 
establishing a government for this country, should 
endeavor to provide some safeguard against the shoals 
on which all other free governments have foundered. 
The college of electors was the result of their precaution 
in this respect. The Constitution provides that the 
people of each state shall vote for presidential electors, 
instead of voting for a president. It was contemplated, 
by the framers of that instrument, that the electors 
should be selected, by the people of each state, on ac- 
count of their being the most intelligent, weighty, 
and patriotic, of their fellow-citizens ; that the election 
of the president should be left solely to them ; and 
that, in such election, they should act their unbiassed 
judgment. But, as every one sees, the patriotism of 
parties has swept away the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion, and, instead of being elected by the electors, the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 31 

presidents are now elected by the people. That is, the 
electors are mere men of straw, committed to their 
course of conduct before their election. 

But scarcely had our government been organized 
under the Constitution, before an event, or a train of 
events, commenced, which greatly hastened the forma- 
tion of political parties in this country. The French 
Revolution is alluded to, which broke out in September, 
1*789. We say revolution ; but perhaps it would bp 
more proper to say, series of revolutions. Louis the 
Sixteenth, a virtuous and amiable monarch, was then 
the occupant of the French throne. He had placed 
himself in a singular attitude, with respect to the mon- 
archs of Europe, by lending a helping hand to the British 
colonies in their struggle for independence ;■ but Europe 
saw that it was with no censurable motives that this had 
been done. As Austria, Prussia, and, in fact, all the 
continent, looked with dread upon the fast growing 
power of Great Britain, under the policy of Pitt, Louis 
was not only pardoned for, but was encouraged in, his 
efforts to establish the liberties of the American colo- 
nies.- But the results of this interference in our affairs 
are well known to the world. It is not safe for a mon- 
archy to send its soldiers abroad to fight with patriots 
for the rights of man. French officers and soldiers 
fought under the immortal Washington, and while these 
battles were raging, the scarcely less immortal Franklin 
walked the streets of Paris, a minister at the French 
court. And it was with the spirit of liberty as with 
the lightning, of which Franklin had taught the world 
how to disarm the clouds ; it was not, and never can 
be, safe for a body in a negative condition to be put 
in contact with one in the positive state. Franklin once, 
4 



32 A HISTORY OP 

in connecting his electric jar to the clouds by a kite, 
came near bringing down the lightnings upon his head ; 
and Louis, in attempting to experiment with the spirit 
of freedom on this side of the Atlantic, was not suffi- 
ciently cautious in making use of non-conducting instru- 
ments, and Europe was shaken to its foundations by the 
shock occasioned by the passage of a spark of that 
subtle spirit across the deep. Louis, that gentle mon- 
arch, whose name must ever be regarded with respect 
and gratitude by Americans, lost his life as the result. 
There were many things to predispose France to a 
revolution. The two prior monarchs, Louis the Four- 
teenth and Louis the Fifteenth, had been extravagant 
and improvident, and the crown came to Louis the Six- 
teenth, charged with burdens which proved insupport- 
able. The state of bankruptcy into which the kingdom 
had been brought, by the extravagance of those mon- 
archs, rendered the convocation of the States-Gen- 
eral necessary ; and this step was but the signal for the 
revolution. That grand national convocation had not 
been assembled before for about two hundred years, 
and had never been called together but upon very ex- 
traordinary occasions. It consisted of the representa- 
tives- of the nobility, clergy, and the people, or the 
tiers etat, as they were called. The popular branch 
which had, at this convocation, been doubled - at the 
instance of M. Necker, contained many daring spirits. 
But what not a little surprises the reader of the history 
of that period, is the fact that large masses of the clergy 
and nobility of the States-General were disposed to 
unite with the popular branch in wresting from the 
crown of France some of its oppressive prerogatives, 
and securing for the nation a more just, liberal, and 






THE WHIG PARTY. 33 

equal constitution. The press in France had been for 
some time free, and the subject of popular rights had 
been agitated boldly by the ablest writers of that age. 
The result of the Revolution in America, and the majestic 
march of the Americans to independence, and the estab- 
lishment of a national government, had produced a pro- 
found sensation in the minds of all intelligent men in 
Europe. The profligacy and debauchery of the French 
court, under Louis the Fifteenth, had disgusted the na- 
tion, and, in view of the deplorable condition into which 
the crimes of the monarchy had plunged France, it was 
not strange that her best people, whether noble, clergy, or 
la}', should feel inclined to take advantage of the crisis to 
lay the foundations of a safer, purer, and more just sys- 
tem of government. The period was right for the effort, 
and the spirit of the nation favorable. The reigning 
monarch himself, Louis the Sixteenth, seemed willing, 
and pleased, to yield to any reasonable demand ; and 
nothing was wanting to secure France a safe, just, equal, 
and durable constitution, but political wisdom on the 
part of the French people. The popular power met with 
no obstacle to anything it demanded, until revolution 
after revolution swept away all rights. There were in 
France intelligent and somewhat conservative Repub- 
licans, whose counsels, if heeded, would have conferred 
blessings on that country ; but when the foundations of 
all government are once up-turned, and everything 
made to hinge on the popular voice, of what importance, 
in a nation of millions of people, are a handful of intel- 
ligent and conservative individuals ? It may be easy 
for a few innovators, by dint of constant agitation, to 
induce a nation to become dissatisfied with, and throw 
off, their government ; but when all government is once 



34 A HISTORY OF 

at an end, and the popular will made supreme, it is not 
always so easy to make that popular will again submit 
to the control of constitutional restraints. 

The first fruit of the French Revolution was the es- 
tablishment of the National Assembly, which wielded 
the legislative power of the kingdom ; but between 1789 
and September, 1792, when the monarchy was wholly 
overthrown, and Louis the Sixteenth beheaded, the system 
of government adopted by the revolutionists was several 
times changed. In fact, scarcely any constitution that 
could be invented would endure a year, and many of 
them but a few months. The government was in the 
hands of the Jacobins, and every measure of importance 
was arranged at their club, and rarely anything trans- 
pired in the Assembly as an act of deliberation. The 
history of these French Jacobin clubs ought to teach 
every sensible mind the extreme danger of suffering 
any nation for a moment to surrender sacred constitu- 
tional rights. Perhaps the world has never seen any- 
thing bloodier or more cruel in the way of civil war. 
Power reigned without justice, reason, or mercy ; and for 
a period the government in France was rightly called 
the Reign of Terror. Marat, Danton, and Robespierre — 
well may the world turn pale at the mention of their 
names ! But, after all, probably they di4 no more than 
any leaders, under like circumstances, seeking at all 
hazards to carry out peculiar views, would be obliged 
to do. They are not all spoken of as men by nature 
innately cruel and bloody-minded ; but it was the exi- 
gency of their mission that called for the assassination 
and murder of millions of the French clergy and gentry. 
To render France safe under the government that ig- 
nored their castes and rights, those privileged classes 



THE WHIG PARTY. 35 

must be extirpated ; and, should a like predicament oc- 
cur to a large popular faction in any other country, — 
should all government be swept away, and the prevail- 
ing faction, true to their mission of crushing" out the 
rights of other classes regarded as privileged, unless 
disposed to compromise with sin and injustice, which 
leading political saints are rarely disposed to do, — the 
bloody acts of the French Eevolution would necessarily 
be reenacted. Reformers are too little apt to reflect 
that without compromise no government nor society on 
earth can possibly exist. In France, how many trials 
were made during the revolutionary period ! The his- 
tory of their National Assembly, their Convention, their 
Directory, their Consular government, and their Impe- 
rial government, will show. Had moderate, wise, and 
conservative measures been acquiesced in at the outset 
of these revolutions, the people, clergy, nobility, and 
monarchy, would all have concurred, and France would 
have taken a step forward in the career of freedom and 
prosperity ; but rash, impracticable, and head-hot and 
head-strong men rushed into the storm as champions of 
the people, and of divine popular rights ; and the result 
was that the progress of the grand nation, in every- 
thing beneficial to the human race, was backwards. 
4* 



36 A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT FORMED ON THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ENG- 
LISH CONSTITUTION, MODIFIED TO SUIT OUR REPUBLICAN CONDITION. 

NARROW ESCAPE FROM THE CONTAGION OF FRENCH JACOBINISM. 

THE FEDERALISTS IN FAYOR OF THE CONSTITUTION AS ADOPTED. 

THE ANTI-FEDERALISTS. — THE FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS. 

On the breaking out of the French Revolution, it was 
very natural that Americans should feel deeply inter- 
ested for the French people ; and undoubtedly that event 
had a powerful influence in establishing the Republican 
party in this country. In France, the moderate Repub- 
licans were anxious to adopt a Constitution based upon 
the principles of the English or American Constitution ; 
but the popular party were not to be satisfied with any 
institution that infringed in- the slightest degree on lib- 
erty. America had been more fortunate. At the close 
of her Revolution, which placed the supreme power of 
the country in the people, it fortunately happened that 
the principal leading men throughout all the states 
were, with but few' exceptions, unambitious, upright, 
conservative, and judicious statesmen. The Revolu- 
tion had successfully terminated under the auspices of 
these men ; and, when the adoption of a constitution was 
undertaken, their influence remained unimpaired with 
the masses of the people. They were partial to the 
laws and institutions which had been their birthright, 
and which were peculiarly adapted to the spirit and 



THE WHIG PARTY. 37 

genius of the Anglo-Saxon race. As America was realty 
the offspring, the child of England, it was natural 
enough that the free spirit of the British Constitution 
should animate her. The American Revolution itself, 
seen during all its stages, seems more like a birth than 
a civil war, and the colonies, from their first appearance, 
were really but the imperfectly defined lineaments of an 
embryo kingdom or state. After emancipation from the 
control of the parent government, although this enfran- 
chisement had only been achieved by a bloody struggle 
with that domineering parent, the best wisdom of young 
America instructed her that her future safety, power, 
and glory, were to be attained by a preservation here 
of that Constitution which had grown up with the growth 
of the Anglo-Saxon race, and which was her legitimate 
inheritance. That, in cleaving to the British form of 
government, modified, of course, to suit their changed 
circumstances, our fathers not only obeyed the dic- 
tates of nature, but likewise acted wisely, subsequent 
events have fully demonstrated ; still, at the time of 
the adoption of our Constitution, there were many who 
were opposed to it. The controversies in regard to it, 
during the years 1787 and 1*788, were carried on with a 
great deal of spirit. Those who favored the Constitu- 
tion as adopted, following, in the division of the legis- 
lative assembly into an upper and lower house, and in 
the construction of the judiciary and the creation of the 
executive departments, the English system, were called 
Federalists ; and those who were opposed to that pro- 
posed federal system were styled anti-Federalists. The 
people at large were so incensed against the mother 
country that any system of government acknowledged 
to resemble hers, would naturally encounter great preju- 



38 A HISTORY OF 

dices ; but men of clearer and deeper views saw, in the 
recent contest with England, not the test, but the abuse 
of her admirable Constitution. Under that Constitution, 
the wisdom of England, as a general thing, rules ; t and 
hence her unexampled stability, power, and prosperity. 
But what would she probably have accomplished under 
the auspices of a Convention, a Directory, a National 
Assembly, or a Consulate ? France, no doubt, with a 
form of government that had mingled the popular with 
the aristocratic element, and had secured, in the service 
of her legislature, the wisdom of the kingdom, would 
have attained all that the heart of patriotism could 
desire. Fortunately, America was called upon to estab- 
lish her national governmental charter before the minds 
of her people had been poisoned and distracted by the 
terrible isms of demagogues. At that day her wisest 
and purest citizens stood high in the confidence of the 
people, as there had not been time for the envy and 
jealousy of conceited reformers • and restless agitators 
to undermine and destroy their influence. If, at the 
present day, a Constitution for this country were to be 
framed, it is doubtful if it would be formed by its best 
intelligence. As it was, the Constitution met with much 
opposition from prejudice and ignorance. 

On the breaking out of the French Revolution the 
sympathy for France and hatred of England were more 
apparent and decisive, in this country, than ever. France 
seemed to claim, as a matter of right, that America 
should espouse her quarrel with England, and many 
Americans were disposed to join their Gaulic friend, as 
in a crusade in behalf of the freedom of the world. 
That that was a trying period for the republic of the 
United States, is very evident. Fortunately for the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 39 

destiny of this country, Washington was at the head 
of government, and there can be no doubt that the pres- 
ervation of the newly-established Constitution was, in a 
great degree, owing to his great personal popularity. 
His administration was in many respects contrary to 
the feelings of large masses of the people, and it is 
doubtful if the Federalists, with a president less influ- 
ential, could have succeeded in the measures they car- 
ried out under Washington's presidency. It was under 
his administration that the Democratic or Republi- 
can party, as then called, began to have an existence. 
Thomas Jefferson, one of the most enthusiastic and 
thorough-going patriots of the Revolution, one of 
the first to bid defiance to George the Third, and 
who was venerated as almost equal to Washington, on 
account of being the author of that production more 
cherished and -thought of, by the masses of the peo- 
ple, than any other human composition, — the Decla- 
ration of Independence, — was, at the time of the 
formation of the Constitution, absent from the country. 
He was at the French court from 1184 till IT 89, when 
he returned, and, at Washington's solicitation,* took 
a seat in the cabinet, as Secretary of State. Born and 
bred to free principles, and instructed in the revolution- 
ary doctrines at home by such men as Patrick Henry, 
and then for five years thrown into the association of 
those powerful French revolutionists, many of them 
philosophers and men of genius, it would be by no means 
singular if his ideas were fully up to his age for sound 
and unwavering democracy. No one has doubted the 
entire sincerity of Jefferson's democracy. He was a 
natural lover of freedom and free principles, and prob- 
ably no man lived, in his age, who labored more ardently 



40 A HISTORY OF 

than he for popular rights ; and but few exceeded him 
in the amount of services rendered in behalf of our in- 
dependence. But Mr. Jefferson was not wholly satis- 
fied with all the features of the Constitution, and was 
far from relishing- the admiration expressed by the Fed- 
eralists for the British form of government. He would 
not have such a body as the senate ; would simply have 
representatives immediately from the people, that in ail 
measures the pure popular will might more readily and 
certainly be realized. This would form a government 
much, if not precisely, like the National Assembly of 
France. The fact is, Jefferson was an intense hater of 
the haughty and overbearing lords and aristrocrats of 
England, and was not pleased to see the English theory 
of government embraced in the American institutions, 
and looked with impatience upon those Americans who, 
he thought, took too fondly to the British model. 

Alexander Hamilton, also a member of Washington's 
cabinet, — the Secretary of the Treasury, — was one of 
the leading Federalists ; one who had almost idolized the 
fundamental principles of the English Constitution : we 
mean, of course, that Constitution when divested of its 
aristocratic privileges. Mr. Hamilton, it was asserted, 
had been in favor of a Constitution more resembling the 
British model, than the one adopted. He favored, so 
his opponents said, a longer term for the office of sena- 
tor ; and the executive he would have hold his place 
during good behavior. These were alleged to be prop- 
ositions advanced by him in the Convention, or other- 
wheres, although not insisted on against the opin- 
ions of others. Excepting Washington, perhaps there 
was scarcely any one whose labors accomplished more 
in establishing the Constitution than those of Hamilton. 



THE WHIG PAETY. 41 

He was truly an able and brilliant statesman. He had 
been much associated with Washington during the Rev- 
olution ; had been his aide-de-camp, confidential secre- 
tary, friend and adviser, on many critical occasions. 
Washington evidently reposed great confidence in his 
intelligence, penetration, and judgment ; and looked 
with the greatest partiality on his probity, honor, and 
patriotism. As the friend of the Father of his country, 
— one in whom that illustrious character reposed more 
than usual confidence in affairs of the highest moment, 
and of whose- worth and friendship he never had a 
doubt, — Alexander Hamilton's name will go down to 
the latest ages. John Adams was Vice-President of the 
United States, and was ranked among the first of the 
Federalists, although he was absent from the coun 
try, as a minister to France, until after the forma- 
tion of the Constitution. Adam^was one of the firs* 
that raised his voice against the encroachments of Eng- 
land upon the rights of the colonists, and was one of 
the main spokes in the wheel of the Revolution. He 
was a man of superior judgment, extreme clearness of 
views, incorruptible integrity, unblemished honor, and 
unexcelled patriotism. When the question of the forma- 
tion of a government for these states arose, Adams was, 
with other statesmen, in favor of a strong and durable 
one. His partiality for what was called the British 
Constitution — that is, for the principle of dividing the 
governing power into three departments : an executive, 
a judiciary, and a legislative body consisting of an upper 
and lower house — characterized him as a Federalist. 
The Secretary of War, under Washington's administra- 
tion, was John Knox, a well-known revolutionary gen- 
eral. It is said that he ranked as a Federalist ; but the 



42 A HISTORY OF 

Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, was, 
like Jefferson, disposed to encourage, in the formation 
and administration of government, principles of a more 
democratic tendency. In short, without going into a 
minute history of the controversies and discussions 
attendant on the adoption of the Constitution, and the 
administration of the government under it, it is suffi- 
cient here to state that the Constitution itself was a com- 
promise between those who sought for a strong govern- 
ment, and those who were for having one of a more 
democratic cast. But as that was an age of democratic 
ideas, and as anything savoring of popular rights was 
exceedingly palatable to the masses, the expressions 
made use of by Hamilton, Adams, and others, favoring 
the principles of the British Constitution, Avere caught 
up and repeated much to their disadvantage, by those 
who looked upon ai^jthing British as unfavorable to 
liberty. The Federalists were charged with meditating 
the establishment of a monarchy, and orders of nobility ; 
and doubtless many of those days credited such charges. 
That the Federalists, especially of a somewhat later 
period, were too partial to England, and were even too 
much in favor of the aristocratic, to the exclusion of 
the democratic, element of society, many even to the 
present day believe ; but that they were ever anything 
but pure republicans it would be ridiculous' to assert. 

If this were, instead of a hasty sketch of the origin 
of political parties in the United States, a history of the 
administration of Washington, it would afford us 
great pleasure to record the triumphs of Hamilton's 
genius in his administration of the Treasury depart- 
ment. All accord him transcendent abilities ; and that 
the principles, at the outset of our republic, when 






THE WHIG PARTY. 43 

all was in chaos, developed by hhn, remain the basis 
upon which our government, in the department presided 
over by him, has ever since been administered, is ample 
evidence of his abilities. But few men were ever more 
unlike in feelings, views, and principles, than Hamilton 
and Jefferson. They disagreed on many important 
questions, and it was but a short time after the forma- 
tion of the government under the Constitution, before 
each had his friends and admirers, who were gradually 
arranged into opposite parties. There were many 
things to promote these party divisions. The French 
Eevolution has been alluded to, and was the prominent 
One. In 1'792, when France was declared a republic, 
enthusiasm in favor of that country ran high in the 
United States. Banquets were held in honor of the 
French Revolution, and sympathy in many ways ex- 
pressed. At first, the course taken by European af- 
fairs seemed so auspicious for liberty, that Americans 
generally felt their hearts pulsate in unison with the 
strides of freedom in France ; but the displays of 
unbridled license and cruelty, which soon ensued, filled 
the minds of the judicious with concern, and strength- 
ened the federal administration in those feelings of 
neutrality as to European conflicts, which their judg- 
ment had taught them to be in accordance with correct 
principles. After revolutionary France had become 
enlisted in war with England, it was natural that those 
Americans who would suffer their feelings to act in 
defiance of correct policy, if not of correct principles, 
should think America ought to espouse the cause of her 
old ally against her recent enemy. But Washington 
and his cabinet were too faithful guardians at the head 
of government to suffer such a suicidal step. When, 
5 



44 A HISTORY OF 

therefore, in 1793, Washington's proclamation of neutral- 
ity was issued, the friends and sympathizers of France, 
and bitter enemies of England, were greatly excited. 
"Washington was generally spared denunciation ; but 
the Federalists, in and out of his cabinet, and Hamilton 
especially, were violently denounced. In 1793, " Cit- 
izen " Genet came to the United States as a French 
minister. He landed at Charleston, S. C, and voyaged 
to Philadelphia. The warmest demonstrations of popu- 
lar favor greeted him wherever he appeared, the people 
meeting him in vast numbers, rendering his progress 
that of a triumphal march. But, notwithstanding he 
everywhere was warmly greeted by the masses of the 
people, he found he could not prevail on the President 
nor his cabinet to depart from a course of strict neu- 
trality. The mission of Genet seemed to be to enlist 
the United States with France in the war against Great 
Britain ; or, failing in this, to himself carry on war 
against that country from the United States, by enlist- 
ing men, fitting out cruisers, etc., etc. But when he 
found that the President would in no case permit such 
transactions, it is said that he threatened to appeal from 
the government to the people! At the request of the 
President, " Citizen " Genet was recalled ; but his 
mission showed the precarious situation of the country 
at that time, and enables us to see how much we are 
indebted to the moral power and influence of the great 
and good Washington, whose arm alone, unsupported by 
the mass of his countrymen, protected our infant repub- 
lic from the wiles of foreign intrigues. As, perhaps, 
the fruits of Genet's visit, democratic societies were 
formed in this country, in imitation, it has been said, of 
the Jacobin clubs of France. They were secret organ- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 45 

izations, holding" correspondence with each other ; and 
it has been supposed that it was to them that Washing- 
ton alluded in his Farewell Address, where he warns 
his countrymen against secret political societies. They 
had but a short existence, but were probably* service- 
able in concentrating into a party organization those 
who were growing distrustful of the Federalists. There 
were, it is true, other matters agitated by Congress 
under Washington's administration, on which there was 
a difference of views between the Federalists and their 
opponents. The question of state rights was warmly 
debated. There was quite an excited controversy as to 
the debts against the government, and touching those 
against the states to be assumed by the general gov- 
ernment. In 1191, the Bank of the United States was 
chartered, occasioning some controversy ; the Federal- 
ists generally maintaining its constitutionality, — their 
opponents the reverse. Also the impressment of Amer- 
ican seamen by British men-of-war was a subject of much 
perplexity, none apologizing for, but the opponents 
of the administration loudly condemning, such acts as 
illegal, and a cause of war. But perhaps the excite- 
ment at no time ran so high against Washington, as on 
the negotiation of the Jay Treaty with England, 1794 
and 1795. But, notwithstanding the popular clamor of 
the day, time, it is believed, has fully confirmed the 
wisdom and entire propriety of that measure. 

These different events and measures are alluded to, to 
show by what steps the opposition of those days came 
into being, and into power ; by what means and causes 
those old Federalists, the heroes of the Revolution, and 
the Solons of the constitutional convention, were ren- 
dered unacceptable to the American people, and were 
made to yield their places in the national councils to 



40 A HISTORY OF 

persons of other views, feelings, and principles. That 
there should be a revolution occasionally in the parties 
of a country is no doubt beneficial and necessary. 
Within certain limits parties are useful ; as without 
them we can hardly conceive that political economy, as 
a science, would receive much attention. To party is 
America, as well as England, indebted for the highest 
orders of statesmen. It gives life to political science, 
and is no doubt a safeguard as well as sometimes a 
destroyer of free institutions. That the Federalists in 
some things, especially at a somewhat later period, 
went too far in submitting to the domineering power of 
England, many will, at the present time, concede ; and 
likewise, that the Republicans, as the opposition were 
called, on the other hand, were, in many things, too 
radical, and too little inclined to submit to constitu- 
tional restraints, will be conceded by just as many. 
That the Federalists should be at the helm in the outset, 
and lay the foundation of the government, and then 
yield to a party that had had the influence of their 
example and discipline for twelve years, was, doubtless, 
no unfortunate thing for the country, as then situated ; 
nay, the event shows that it was for its substantial ser- 
vice. The overthrow of the Federalists was, like the 
overthrow of any political party, only a political de- 
feat, with a free course before them for future tri- 
umphs. These parties have continued from their origin 
until a recent date, both occasionally changed as to 
names, adherents, leaders, and principles, and' alternat- 
ing in their ascendency in the government of the coun- 
try. As the Federal was in reality the parent of the 
late Whig party, and as it is of the latter that we pro- 
pose to give some account, it will be necessary to pur- 
sue a little further its destiny. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 47 



CHAPTER V. 

JEFFERSON THE FOUNDER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. — THE DECLINE 
OF THE FEDERAL PARTY. WASHINGTON'S RETIREMENT AND FARE- 
WELL ADDRESS. — JOHN ADAMS' ELECTION IN 1796. — TREATMENT OF 

THE UNITED STATES BY ENGLAND. IMPRESSMENT OF SEAMEN. 

THE NEUTRAL POLICY OF THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION, ETC. ETC. 

Whatever may be said of the Republican party, as it 
existed in the times of Jefferson, as to the propriety of 
its issues, no one can deny that the Republicans them- 
selves, so' far as they espoused party measures, 
meant well . for the country. They were patriots, 
warmly devoted to the cause of human liberty, and will- 
ing to perish in the defence of their country. The party 
was no sectional organization, but was, and ever has 
been, intensely national. Jefferson, -the founder of 
American Democracy, was in heart and soul a lover of 
freedom. The party that formed around him was one 
whose watchword was Liberty. It was a party con- 
sisting of men who were fired with fierce indignation 
towards England for attempting to fasten the chains of 
slavery upon them ; and although that party had not, at 
the outset, so many men of wealth, and of highly cul- 
tivated minds, as composed the Federal party, it never- 
theless abounded in patriots — those who were willing 
to face the cannon's mouth in the defence of their liber- 
ties. It is but natural that freemen should be jealous 
of their liberties. The greatest fault that can be charged 
upon the old Republicans is, that they were perhaps a 
5* 



48 A HISTORY OF 

little too jealous of their rights, and carried their poli- 
tics somwhat too far; that, in their excess of zeal for 
the world's freedom, they were in danger of wrecking 
the vessel freighted with their own. But, if this charge 
be just, it was fortunate that they encountered the old Fed- 
eral party, whose prominence in the land thwarted and 
counteracted their less conservative principles. The his- 
tory of Washington's administration shows the gradual 
decline of the Federal organization, and the correspond- 
ing growth of the Republican party. As early as 1*793, 
on some party measures, the Federalists were in the 
minority in Congress, although it was not until 1800 
that the Republicans had an ascendency amongst the 
people. At the close of Washington's administration 
John Adams was by a majority of three in the electoral 
college elected President, and held the office one term ; 
after which, in 1800, Thomas Jefferson was elected by 
the House of Representatives, there having been no 
choice by the people. When Washington, at the close 
of his second term, took leave of the presidency, he 
presented to his countrymen his Farewell Address. 
In making that address, he consulted propriety less 
than duty. The propriety of the act was unques- 
tionable, and recognized by the whole world. He had 
been the leader in the Revolution ; his discretion, wis- 
dom, and prudence, had saved the revolutionary army, 
and exhausted, and finally captured, the forces of the 
adversary ; he had throughout encountered every obsta- 
cle that envy, jealousy, and the passions of man, could 
throw in his way ; generals in the army, and knaves 
out of it, had conspired against him; and nothing but 
his firmness, patriotism, and heroism, enabled him to 
hold together naked and starving men, and finally lead 






THE WHIG PARTY. "49 

his countrymen to victory and peace. Every candid 
reader of history will say that, without Washington, 
our independence could never have been achieved. 
And then, when peace was established, and the pas- 
sions of disunited and jealous states were wrangling 
about state rights and confederations, . it was only 
under the auspices of the beloved Father of his Country 
that the people of the United States could be led to 
unite their destinies under a general government, and 
consent to the adoption of the Constitution. And 
finally, when, with shrieks for freedom, anarchy reared 
its awful head, and the peace and stability of the new- 
born American republic were threatened by the yawn- 
ing gulf of French Jacobinism, nothing but the composed, 
serene and majestic brow of Washington could speak 
safety to his countrymen, and allay the fiend of discord. 
He felt that the newly adopted government was an 
experiment, but an experiment freighted with the liber- 
ties of America. More nations have conquered freedom 
than have preserved it. Courage, which is not uncom- 
mon, may extort freedom from the oppressor ; but only 
wisdom, which is very rare, can render the acquisition 
secure. 

Washington had done so much towards establishing 
the liberties of his country, that, on ceasing longer to 
take a part in public affairs, he felt he could not with 
propriety withdraw from his elevated position, as chief 
magistrate of the nation, without giving his country- 
men his parting advice. And the counsels of that 
affectionate Farewell Address now speak to us as a 
voice from his tomb. They were the counsels of one 
who wished the American republic to be perpetual. 
His eyes glanced down to future ages ; he foresaw the 



50 A HISTOKY OF 

difficulties which coming time had in store ; and with 
marvellous wisdom he laid down the principles, and put 
forth the cautions, which, if regarded, will unfailingly 
secure the lasting union and prosperity of these states. 
Washington was acquainted with the ill-success which 
had, in past ages of the world, attended the establish- 
ment of republican and democratic governments ; 
and he well knew, and most keenly felt, that there was 
but a single hope for the success of the government 
here, in the formation of which he had taken so great a 
part. Would or would not the Americans have the 
wisdom and stability to seize hold of, and stand by, the 
only possible means of rendering the republican insti- 
tutions, for which there was so great an exultation, per- 
manent ? His Farewell Address shows with what 
intense anxiety the Father of his Country saw this re- 
public launched upon the " tide of experiment/' and how 
impressively he besought its helmsmen to never lose 
sight of that compass by the aid of which there can- be 
no storm it cannot outride. If republics can ever be- 
come successful and permanent, it must be through the 
instrumentality of constitutions. So long as the con- 
stitution of a country is regarded as a sacred law, — so 
long as all parts and sections of the commonwealth are 
united in yielding full and entire obedience to it ; feel- 
ing that it is an. instrument on which their dearest 
rights are dependent, — a republic may be safe ; for all 
republics have been destroyed by enemies from within, 
not from without. In his Farewell Address Wash- 
ington dwells long and intently on this. In fact, 
to teach one to observe and cherish the Constitution, is 
to teach him union, and every other principle and duty 
embraced in that instrument. He warned his country- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 51 

men against all sectional animosities, and recommended 
that union, above all things, should be cherished as the 
palladium of their liberties, and pointed out the many 
methods by which, unless the American people should 
remain constantly on their guard, their government 
might be shipwrecked. 

John Adams succeeded Washington as President in 
H96, having been elected over Thomas Jefferson by a 
very slight majority. Jefferson was the candidate of 
the Kepublican party. Notwithstanding the excesses 
of the French Revolution had very much dampened the 
ardor of that portion of the American people who had 
been in favor of espousing the cause of France in her 
war with England, still much occurred to nourish the 
hatred of Americans generally towards the latter. Eng- 
land, in the peace of 1*783, did not yield to her destiny 
with very good grace. As she had, in the war against 
her colonies, to encounter France and Spain, our vener- 
able mother saw the necessity of giving up the strug- 
gle ; but as soon as the weapons of her two European 
foes were withdrawn from her breast, she was far from 
honorable, or just, in the manner of executing the 
treaty of peace with the United States. The forts and 
stations, held by Britain upon our borders, were not 
given up with any degree of cordial alacrity, nor were 
her forces withdrawn as readily as they might and 
ought to have been. Our country had much to suffer 
from her unfriendly and haughty disposition. The 
states were not united, and had no government worthy 
of the name. Immediately on the announcement of the 
peace, our ill-clad and unpaid army was disbanded. 
Of course there was no navy ; and what could be done 
but to submit to the superciliousness of a power which, 



52 A HISTORY OF 

under all the circumstances, could not have been in a 
very amiable humor towards us? American officers, 
throughout the Revolution, had been the objects of ridi- 
cule amongst the aristocrats of the British camp, as, 
indeed, had the American patriots, and everything 
American, amongst the parasites of the English court. 
This feeling of contempt for everything American, — this 
disposition to treat with ridicule the manners, habits, 
and customs, of Americans, and to sneer at American 
institutions, — is not even at the present day entirely 
subdued in the lordly heart of Mr. Bull. For years 
after the Revolution nothing could more nauseate that 
gentleman than to hear the name of Jonathan ; and 
when it was in his power to be governed solely by his 
own sentiments of propriety, in his treatment of his 
pretending son, he was never known to err on the side 
of magnanimity, or courtesy. The fact is, Mr. Bull had 
no faith in his son Jonathan ; did not believe he would 
ever amount to anything ; was very sure that he was- a 
graceless, unmannerly scamp ; and was far from feeling 
disposed to recognize his rights in anything, further 
than absolutely obliged. After the war was at an end, 
the states began to extend their commerce abroad, and 
cover the ocean with their sails and sailors. But Mr. 
Bull seemed to think the ocean his domain. Somebody 
— some English poet — had put it into his head that 
Britannia rules the waves ! And, feeling that he was 
master of the ocean, the old gentleman was very cavalier 
in his treatment upon the deep of the crafts of other 
powers. He had peculiar views as to the laws of 
nations ; and, instead of recognizing the codes as un- 
folded by Grotius, Puffendorf, Yattel, and other authori- 
ties, he was disposed rather to be governed by rules of 



THE WHIG PAETY. 53 

his own making.. He was quite unceremonious in his 
treatment of the commerce of the whole world, and of 
the American commerce in particular. If, in his war 
with France, he was in want of sailors, or soldiers, he 
went aboard of American merchantmen for them. He 
pretended he was in pursuit of British subjects ; but, as 
by the English laws no subject of Great Britain could 
legally expatriate himself, and become a citizen of an- 
other country, those who had become citizens of the 
United States were impressed, and frequently those 
who were American-born. To this the early states- 
men of the republic remonstrated ; and, although Bull 
would occasionally qualify his claim and action, he ever 
bore himself like one above the reach of his injured 
victim. As Washington before had done, Mr. Adams 
remonstrated against the impressment of American sea- 
men ; but, under the administration of the latter, that 
practice, with others as unjustifiable in regard to Ameri- 
can commerce, was persisted in by the assumed master 
of the ocean. 

No sooner had France become a republic than England, 
and the monarchies of Europe, undertook to replace the 
Bourbons upon their throne. The monarchs of Europe 
were well united in the feeling that it was far from pru- 
dent to tolerate a powerful republic in their very midst, 
and readily embraced the British policy of restoring 
monarchy to France, let the cost be what it might. But 
the armies of republics, when their liberties are attacked, 
are usually brave in war, and fight with an enthusiasm 
and desperation not often manifested by the soldiers of 
kings. The result was that France rapidly broke up 
the alliances against her, and was almost everywhere 
on the land victorious, having, sometimes, the most of 



54 A HISTORY or 

Europe bound to her policy. While these things were 
thus progressing, England nearly annihilated the navies 
of the belligerents, leaving no rival for the commerce 
of the world but the United States. The manner in 
which this country profited by its position is clear 
proof of the wisdom of its administrative policy. The 
stern and unyielding resolution to maintain an entire 
neutrality as to the wars of all foreign or transatlantic 
powers, though at first in opposition to large numbers 
of very worthy citizens of the United States, proved in 
the event so eminently judicious, as a policy for this 
country, that it has ever since, by all statesmen, been 
adhered to. Moreover, Hamilton was an American Pitt. 
The ultimate greatness of this country, the extent of 
its resources, the correct course for it to pursue for the 
development of its best interests, and its future com- 
mercial career, were seen and understood by that states- 
man better than by most other men of his day. It was 
fortunate for the country that so penetrating and practi- 
cal a mind was, at that period, at its command. The rapid 
growth of commerce for a few years attested this ; for 
it was the astonishment of the world. But the commer- 
cial policy of the country will be more particularly 
considered hereafter. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 55 



CHAPTER VI. 

JOHN ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. — HIS PART IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OP 

THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONS. THE PROVIDENTIALLY FORTUNATE 

CONCURRENCE OF EVENTS THAT FAVORED THE FREEDOM OF AMERICA, 
AND THE GROWTH OF HER FREE INSTITUTIONS. DEFEAT OF THE FED- 
ERALISTS BY THE REPUBLICANS IN 1800. — COMMERCIAL PROSPERITY 
OF AMERICA DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF ADAMS. — JEFFERSON'S 
POLICY AS TO COMMERCE. 

The administration of John Adams, which ended in 
1800, was not essentially different from that of Wash- 
ington. At his recommendation the so-called alien and 
sedition laws were passed, which were used by his 
enemies much to his disadvantage. They were meas- 
ures of too little consequence to deserve much consid- 
eration, as they indicate nothing in regard to the 
political principles of Mr. Adams. The laws in question 
might have been wise, or unwise, without reasonably 
affecting his standing as a statesman or patriot. But 
from that day Mr. Adams, and the party supposed to 
inherit Federal principles, have had arrayed against them 
all the voters of the country of foreign birth. The 
neutral policy inaugurated by President Washington 
was strictly pursued by his successor, whose overtures 
to France for a commercial treaty were indignantly 
spurned, and his ministers ordered out of that country. 
A speck of war with our revolutionary ally, especially on 
the ocean, took place. In one or two naval encounters 
our young republic showed a vigor not only respect- 
6 



56 A HISTORY OF 

able, but somewhat significant. Our transatlantic 
neighbor soon thought better of our friendship, received 
our ambassadors, and entered into a treaty with us> 
though based on principles of neutrality. 

Mr. Adams, as has before beeu remarked, was in 
Europe at the time the United States Constitution was 
formed ; but it should not be forgotten that the frame- 
work of that Constitution might almost be claimed by 
him as of his originating. The constitutions of many 
of the states were of an earlier origin than that of the 
United States ; and in the more essential principles the 
latter is unquestionably patterned on the model of some 
of the former. On occasion of the construction of the 
state constitutions, which were called for immediately on 
throwing off the government of the mother country, 
there was considerable discussion as to the best form for 
such institutions. Mr. Adams said and did more, per- 
haps, than any other American upon the subject. His 
counsels were of great service in Massachusetts, in the 
formation of her constitution, which was prepared in 
1779, and was almost the sole work of his hands ; and, 
in 1776, it seems he was consulted by "Virginia, North 
Carolina, and New Jersey, and submitted to them brief 
outlines, which were published, and served as the basis 
for all the state constitutions adopted prior to the 
adoption of the United States Constitution. The most 
valuable principles of the English Constitution were* in- 
corporated therein. Monarchy and nobility, and privi- 
leged classes, were not to be known here, of course ; 
but the great principles of liberty established by our 
English ancestors were regarded as too valuable to be 
surrendered at such a crisis. Our fathers were in a 
situation to prune away the more objectionable parts of 



THE WHIG PARTY. 57 

the British system ; but the whole system itself it would 
have been madness to cast off. But still, it was con- 
sidered by French statesmen and republicans as strange 
that the Americans, in declaring themselves free from 
the mother country, should imitate her form of govern- 
ment. The letter of M. Turgot to Dr. Price, in IT 18, 
took special exceptions to the wisdom of this step by 
the Americans ; and, as it appears, there were Ameri- 
cans who entertained the same prejudices upon the 
subject. Those who dissented from the views of Mr. 
Adams would take the course adopted afterwards by 
the French republic, — would have only a house of 
representatives, with no senate, or executive, other, 
perhaps, than that chosen by such house, — and would 
have the judiciary annually elected, either by the house 
or the people. As we look back to those interesting- 
times, and contemplate the condition of this country at 
the assumption of its independence ; behold the entire 
repudiation of all British authority, whether from with- 
out or within — all British officers, and all legal processes 
authorized by British laws, spurned ; and see some three 
millions of intelligent, industrious, and virtuous freemen 
engaged in the work of forming for themselves a govern- 
ment, we cannot help feeling the deep debt of gratitude 
we owe to the founders of our republic. We see that 
their wisdom, statesmanship, and patriotism, encountered 
ignorance, prejudice, and foreign intrigue ; and it is 
with mortification that we reflect that for years we have 
been accustomed, under the influence of party bias, to 
treat with neglect, and almost contempt, the names of 
some of the firmest, wisest, and best patriots, that assisted 
in laying the corner-stone of our great Temple of Libert}^. 
The establishment of the Independence of the United 



58 A HISTORY OF 

States, the adoption of our Constitution, and our sub- 
sequent stability and success, have all been very much 
due to the singular interpositions of fortune. The lover 
of his country sees the hand of Providence manifested 
in all its history. But the belief in providential inter- 
position is apt to inspire conceit, and a sense of security 
based on the favor of Heaven, not compatible with the 
best interests of the country, and should not be in- 
dulged in too far. At the outset, France aided in 
producing an alienation of these colonies from Great 
Britain, and then aided them in the establishment of 
their independence. But when the example of the rights 
of man, which France had assisted the Americans in 
setting to the world, was followed in that country, all 
the monarchies of Europe were alarmed, and combined 
their arms to restore the Bourbons to their throne ; as 
it seemed to be solemnly resolved by them all that a 
republic in the heart of Europe could by no possibility be 
tolerated. Had the monarchs of Europe been immedi- 
ately successful in their attempt to crush out republican- 
ism in France, they would have been in a situation to 
direct attention to the institutions of the United States. 
That European despots have ever looked with dread 
upon the successful example of republicanism in America, 
is but too well known ; and that those rulers have ever 
desired, and still do desire, the subversion and over- 
throw of our present system, no one can doubt; but 
fortune has been the favorer of the United States to an 
extent unparalleled in the history of the world. It will 
be recollected that the birth of the constitutional govern- 
ment of the United States, and the breaking out of the 
French Revolution, were simultaneous events ; they 
both occurred in 1*189. The occupation of Europe from 



THE WHIG PARTY. 59 

that date until the fall of Bonaparte, in 1815, is well 
known. To protract the controversy which engaged the 
European crowned heads, the American is disposed to 
think that Providence raised up Napoleon Bonaparte, as, 
under the shelter of those European contests, America 
grew up to a stature and strength that rendered her safe 
from at least the arms of foreign powers. Europe ob- 
tained a general peace in 1815 ; but the long, bloody, 
and devastating wars, which had led to that peace, left 
the European governments in no situation to undertake 
a crusade against a republic some three or four thousand 
miles away. Furthermore, the commerce of Europe, 
saving what was in the hands of England, had been 
mostly annihilated, and England herself was so over- 
whelmingly burdened with debt, incurred in her long 
struggle with Napoleon, and her manufacturing and 
commercial interests so prostrated by loss of American 
trade, that she was quite ready and willing to adjust 
her differences with the United States, and that on no 
unfavorable terms for this country. 

At the outset of our Union the wars of combined 
Europe against France produced much excitement in 
this country ; but the firm position of neutrality taken 
by the Federal party, and maintained in spite of pop- 
ular clamor, was the dictate of the soundest wisdom, 
and, beyond all controversy, proved the salvation of 
the United States. The Federalists and Republicans, 
under the administration of the first presidents, were 
divided more upon questions of the foreign policy of 
this country than upon domestic questions. Many of 
those measures adopted by the Federalists while in 
power, were continued by the Republicans after their 
ascendency, showing that the latter were not entirely 



60 A HISTOEY OF 

blinded, by passion and prejudice, to whatever, in the 
policy of the former, experience had demonstrated to 
be wise and useful. And, since those days, the two 
great parties existing in the country have constantly 
had an influence upon each other, which time has always 
been certain to demonstrate. That this is so is the 
most encouraging feature of modern politics. It en- 
courages an individual to persevere in his adhesion to 
the minority. There is no patriotism in the politician 
who seeks rather the ascendency of his party than the 
promulgation and establishment of correct political 
principles ; and he who sides with a minority, if that 
minority is intelligent, virtuous, and conservative, ren- 
ders far greater service to his country than the more 
popular politician who, by the arts of the demagogue, 
obtains political power. 

The Federalists were, in 1800, defeated by the Repub- 
licans ; and in March, 1801, Thomas Jefferson, the father 
of American Democracy, was inaugurated President of 
the United States. But, in looking back upon the 
administration of the Federal party, although disposed 
to hail the ascendency of the Democracy as of essential 
importance to the cause of liberty, we are obliged to 
confess that those Federalists were really the fathers 
of our institutions, and that to them we are indebted 
for the establishment of that policy which has saved 
our country from the toils of foreign powers, and ren- 
dered it prosperous beyond precedent in the history of 
nations. The commercial policy of the Federal admin- 
istration was, notwithstanding their hostility thereto up 
to a late date, finally adopted by the Democracy. The 
Democracy at last embraced that policy as the result 
of the teachings of experience ; but the Federalists 



THE WHIG PARTY. 61 

inaugurated it as the suggestions of far-seeing wisdom. 
This was no particular disparagement to the leading 
Democratic politicians. Neither Grenville nor Lord 
North could, with Pitt, foresee the advancing commer- 
cial greatness of England ; nor was it strange that 
Jefferson failed to anticipate, with Hamilton and 
Adams, the splendid commercial career of this country. 
In fact, no one, at the outset of the United States gov- 
ernment, was prepared for the extraordinary prosperity 
which so soon ensued, because no statesman could have 
anticipated it, without foreseeing the protracted Euro- 
pean wars to which it was in a great measure attrib- 
utable. The Federal administration departed with the 
eighteenth century, — a century which had witnessed 
great changes among the nations of the west. At the 
commencement of that century England had but faintly 
begun to unfold her energies, and had given but few 
of the signs of greatness to which she was destined. 
It was more than fifty years — that is, near the middle of 
the eighteenth century — before Europe began to look 
with wonder upon the growing importance of their 
British neighbor, and tremble with apprehensions of 
her extensive colonies and fast increasing commerce. 
At the commencement of that century her whole ex- 
ports did not annually exceed the value of twenty 
millions of dollars, — scarcely exceeding the amount 
annually sent to the American colonies alone at the 
breaking out of the American Revolution. During the 
revolutionary period, commerce with the rebellious col- 
onies was, of course, suspended ; but, after the treaty 
of peace, trade began to revive, and its extension, by 
both the mother country and the states, was unexampled 
in the history of the western powers. The commerce 



62 A HISTORY OF 

of almost the whole world was thrown into the hands 
of England and the United States, and the exports of 
the latter reached, during the administration of the last 
of the Federalists (Adams), the amount of about ninety 
millions of dollars per annum. That this commerce was 
the result of the peculiar situation of the affairs of 
Europe, and not the healthy development of the natural 
course of events, and was, in the nature of things, to be 
temporary, should not be overlooked, although this was 
not considered by many Americans, when, after a short 
period of enjoyment of that trade, this country was 
compelled to relinquish it entirely, for a season, to vin- 
dicate its rights upon the ocean. After the general 
peace of 1815, it was many years before the commerce 
of the United States became as extended as it had been 
prior to the system of non-intercourse forced upon this 
country by the aggressions of England, under the 
administration of Jefferson. But that peculiar period 
of commercial prosperity was a golden era for New 
England. As the leading Federal politicians were New 
England men, it was natural that that party should be 
devoted to the commercial interests of the country. 
Canals, and railroads, and western emigration, had not 
at that time rendered New York city the great empo- 
rium of the United States that a later period has found 
her. England looked with no complacency upon the 
ubiquity of American commerce, and her aggressions 
upon it never ceased, from the peace of 1*783 until the 
peace of 1815. It was charged by the Republicans upon 
the Federalists that, for the sake of enjoying those rich 
commercial harvests, they were too much disposed to 
submit to British outrages, and pocket their affronts. 
The suspected partiality of the Federalists for England 



THE WHIG PARTY. 63 

seriously affected the minds of the masses of the Ameri- 
can people, and contributed more than perhaps anything 
else to throw them out of power. Mr. Jefferson was a 
statesman of another stamp. It was not his opinion 
that the highest interests of this country were to consist 
in commerce ; and, perhaps, he did not accord to the 
commercial policy of the country sufficient importance. 
But, if the Republicans accused the Federalists of inclin- 
ing to the interests of England, the Federalists, on the 
other hand, appeared perfectly sure that the Republi- 
cans were for espousing the cause of France. Both 
parties were, undoubtedly, too jealous of each other ; 
and, although the true interests of the country were at 
the hearts of both, they carried their jealousies too far. 
Still, although profoundly impressed with the value 
and worth of those noble old Federalists, the candid 
American of the present day will, on the whole, say 
that, all things considered, the ascendency of the Repub- 
licans was, in the end, of essential importance to the 
country. 



64 A HISTORY OP 



CHAPTER VII. 

JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION AND CONSERVATISM. — REFLECTIONS ON 

THE DOCTRINE OF INSTRUCTION. FOREIGN INTRIGUES IN REGARD TO 

AMERICA. EUROPEAN NATIONS DESIRED HER INDEPENDENCE OUT OF 

FEAR FOR THE INCREASING POWER OF ENGLAND, AND WERE OPPOSED 
TO THE PERMANENCE OF REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS HERE OUT OF FEAR 

OF THE EXAMPLE. REASONS WHY AMERICA HAS BEEN EXEMPT FROM 

EUROPEAN INTERFERENCE. THAT THE PERMANENCY, OF REPUBLICAN- 
ISM HERE MUST EVENTUALLY SUBVERT MONARCHY IN EUROPE FELT TO 

BE CERTAIN. REPUBLICANISM IN AMERICA ONLY TO BE PRESERVED 

BY UNION. FOREIGNERS WILL SOONER SEE US BROKEN IN PIECES BY 

LEAVING US ALONE, THAN ATTEMPTING OUR DESTRUCTION BY FORCE. 

The success of the Republicans in the election of 
Thomas Jefferson was a triumph over no mean and in- 
significant party, or one that would be likely to submit 
tamely to defeat, and ground arms after the first re- 
pulse. Parties in those days were not without their 
ultra elements. There was Jacobinism in the Republican 
ranks prior to Jefferson's election, and in the Federal 
party afterwards. Those Federalists who had with tri- 
umphant joy seen the adoption of the Constitution, 
were scarcely consolable after the defeat of their favor- 
ite party. The Federalists numbered in their ranks 
many of the wealthy of the land, and embraced many 
men of talent and popular note. A large share of the 
presses of the country, with a great majority of the 
pulpits, were in the Federal influence ; and as the tri- 
umph of Federalism was considered absolutely indis- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 65 

pensable for the safety of the government, of course 
the most extraordinary zeal was infused into the poli- 
tics of those days. Much occurred at the outset of this 
government, which was thought calculated to defeat 
the hopes of the patriot as to its durability. Unfortu- 
nately, certain portions of New England, in the overthrow 
of Federalism, conceived that they had been wronged, 
and that the triumphant party was one necessarily 
arrayed against their rights and interests. The defeat 
of the Federal party, in 1800, wrought a change upon its 
temper, tactics, and policy. All the Federalists that, 
under Washington and Adams, belonged to that party, 
did not continue to adhere to its ranks in subsequent 
days. The times were soon changed, and men were 
changed with them. Among the Federalists, as well as 
among the Kepublicans, there were conservatives and 
ultraists. It appeared that the Federalists out of 
power did not talk as they had acted in power ; and 
many conservative Federalists were but too elated to 
discover that the Republicans in power did not act as 
they had talked while out. It is natural enough, per- 
haps, that ambitious politicians should, in order to be 
elevated to office, sometimes in defiance of their better 
judgment, pander to the ignorance and prejudices of 
the people, and appear to encourage views and 
measures that they would be sorry to uphold when 
in power. It is characteristic of the fanatical leaders 
of a fanatical party to practise and preach the same 
political doctrines, because their madness is not 
assumed, and has no method in it. Occasionally a pol- 
itician will be of so exalted a character as to scorn to 
be seen appealing to the prejudices of the masses ; but 
such have always been scarce, and daily grow more so. 



66 A HISTOEY OF 

During the revolutionary period men were selected for 
office less on account of any peculiar views as to polit- 
ical measures, than for their known ability and integ- 
rity. Eepresentatives were allowed to take their places 
in the Congress, and act their impartial judgment after 
mutual discussions with their associates, and were not 
bound at all events to bow in obedience to the local 
prejudices of their constituents. This high character 
of revolutionary politics soon disappeared among the 
most of our legislators ; and of late years, instead of 
the ablest men, — those most noted for wisdom and vir- 
tue, — men of an inferior grade, both as to talents and 
morals, have too often been selected by the people as 
their representatives. These the people knovj they can 
trust. They acknowledge that others are of superior 
ability, wisdom and experience, and of well-estab- 
lished moral character ; but such have not manifested 
sufficient zeal in the popular cause — are not regarded 
as entirely reliable on questions exceedingly dear to the 
masses. The self-esteem of the simplest clown will not 
permit him to entertain for a moment the suspicion that 
he has been duped ; and the thought that he is 
deceived by an artful and wordy leader can never enter 
his head. The true worshipper of Joseph Smith can 
never look upon, that impostor as an outsider views 
him. The impositions of Mahomet are none the less 
certain because no worshipper of him can possibly 
work himself into the belief that his prophet was not 
what he professed to be. Political partisanship inspires 
much of this insane man-worship, and people are exceed- 
ingly apt, especially when religious views enter at all 
into political questions, to adhere to their champions 
less on account of their real virtues and merits, than on 



THE WHIG PARTY. 67 

account of the same feeling or principle of human 
nature which is at the bottom of every species of idol- 
atry. As long as ignorance remains in the world 
deceit may continue to be practised, and the extent and 
success of that practice will be in proportion to the 
extent of the ignorance. Universal and infallible wis- 
dom can never prevail. However mortifying the re- 
flection, it is perfectly safe to say that no section, no 
congressional district in the United States, contains 
a population divinely perfect, or a people not liable to 
error, and whose minds are wholly unobscured by igno- 
rance. From the best district no honorable man would 
wish to accept the station of representative, and con- 
sent to act in no respect saving in accordance with the 
views of his people. By thus doing he would acknowl- 
edge himself the slave of the ignorance and prejudices 
of his constituents. The true theory of republican 
government should leave the representative entirely 
free to act, after thorough discussion and mature 
deliberation, as his best judgment shall dictate ; for 
what is the use of congressional discussions, if each 
representative is to receive imperative instructions at 
home ? On account of this practice of requiring obe- 
dience in representatives to local prejudices, the men of 
the land most worthy of office are excluded therefrom. 
No person truly worthy of a place in the national leg- 
islature would ever so degrade and stultify himself as 
to accept it, subject to such slavish conditions. But 
there are enough ever willing to flatter the multitude, 
and inspire the masses with a desire to have their wills 
carried out ; and when this desire has been aroused into 
a strong passion, none but the surest instruments for the 
w^rk will be trusted. If people were not infatuated, — 
7 



68 A HISTORY OF 

were not blinded as by a species of madness, — they 
would, on a moment's reflection, see the folly and danger 
of such a system of political action, and at once return 
to the practice of the purer days of the republic, 
when men of known virtue and talents were, un- 
shackled, selected for office. The Union was formed 
by votes, and by votes it will be destroyed, if ever 
destroyed at all. Without the purer species of repre- 
sentation alluded to, it would not have been formed ; 
and how long it may be preserved under the system 
based on local prejudices and sectional animosities, 
must depend much upon circumstances. 

America has been as favorable a theatre for the ex- 
periment of a republican government as could be 
wished. Providence in every particular has seemed 
to favor this republican enterprise. If the experiment 
shall prove a failure, it will be on account of the fault 
of the American people alone, as the great Kuler of 
human events appears to have so adjusted the affairs 
of the external world as to leave this country, from 
the dawn of its independence, entirely free to pursue 
its own course unmolested. Monarchy throughout the 
world has dreaded our experiment, but has been unable 
to avoid it. The independence of the colonies, at the 
time of their rebellion, was thought to be of vital im- 
portance, and a highly desirable object to the crowns 
of Europe, as it would be the destruction of one of the 
wings of English commerce ; but no crown of Europe 
desired the new-born states to become a republic. But 
what, under the circumstances, could be done ? The 
attempt of France to follow our example they did 
resist ; but before that labor was entirely off their 
hands, America had become a great and powerful 



THE WHIG PARTY. 69 

nation, and had shown herself the second naval p^wer 
on earth. It is true some few faint efforts were made 
to shape the character of the institutions of the United 
States. At the establishment of independence, Euro- 
pean intrigue was for a while visible. Some of the 
leading Americans were induced to think a monarchical 
government for this country was necessary ; and by 
such, and by some of the foreign commanders sent 
over by France to aid in the struggle, Washington was 
invited to establish a monarchy, and assume a crown. 
But the effort scarcely produced a momentary ripple on 
the current of events in this country. Afterwards, 
during the commercial difficulties between the United 
States and England, the latter made a direct effort to 
bring about a disunion of the states, and it is well 
known that England, as well as the monarchies gen- 
erally throughout Europe, desires the failure of the re- 
publican form of government in America. But Eng- 
land and European monarchs have not been able to look 
two ways at once. The East has commanded their 
most anxious attention. If the eyes of England and 
Western Europe have been turned to the West, it was 
necessarily only for a momentary glance, as the East 
has ever been the object of their utmost solicitude and 
concern. That great Asiatico-European power, Russia, 
has, from the first dawning of civilization in America, 
stood behind Europe like a huge giant, ready, at so 
favorable a moment as an embroilment of the latter 
with this country would afford, to extend her empire 
to the Mediterranean. Russia, the most despotic power 
in the world, has ever seen the growth of the Ameri- 
can government with unfeigned pleasure, republican 
though it be. In America the Czar has constantly seen 



70 A HISTORY OF 

a balance to European power, and looks to a war be- 
tween her and the powers of Western Europe for an 
opportunity to consummate the manifest destiny of 
Eussia. Consequently, Russia has not been a swift 
party to the many-headed European treaties, quin- 
tuple or otherwise called, created for the purpose 
of carrying out European policy in regard to America. 
It has been a darling endeavor of the statesmen of 
England and Europe, for some years past, to bring Rus- 
sia into a general alliance for the promotion of certain 
European views ; but her policy has never been consid- 
ered as entirely identical with that of royalty in the 
West. She is so situated as to render the example of 
American freedom of but little concern to her, as slight 
must be the impression it can ever make upon her Scla- 
vonic and other barbaric hordes. The Russian empe- 
rors have for a long time looked down upon the key of 
the world, — the city of Constantine, — the present 
possession of the declining Turkish power, — as a 
prize marked by destiny for their acquisition. 

The late Czar Nicholas, after well weighing the 
powers of Western Europe, came to the conclusion that 
he could realize the traditional destiny of Russia — 
could, despite all the combinations possible to be brought 
against him, take a step which must almost immediately 
change materially the affairs of the world ; but the 
attempt only demonstrated the settled policy of the 
Western powers as to Eastern politics. The Crimean 
war was expensive and bloody, and was curiously ter- 
minated by the peace of Paris. The young Emperor 
Alexander, on the death of his father Nicholas in the 
midst of the war, undoubtedly found the undertaking 
of that father too gigantic for his abilities and resources, 



THE WHIG PARTY. 71 

and was obliged to yield to the superior powers 
arrayed against him. But has he relinquished the long- 
cherished ambition of Russia ? The discussions of the 
treaty of Paris were secret, and its theory or philoso- 
phy can only be inferred. It was discussed after 
Austria, in the affair of Kosta, had been affronted by 
the United States, and an embroilment of the latter 
with England was pointing to war, on account of the 
enlistment controversy. All we know is that a peace 
with Russia was concluded on most favorable terms ; 
England and France paying their own expenses incurred 
in resisting the aggressions of the former ; and, ap- 
parently as a consideration therefor, that power be- 
came a party to a general European alliance. Without 
the cordial union of Russia with Europe, America has 
nothing to apprehend from European interference ; with 
it, she has nothing to fear so long as united. All the 
world combined could not overthrow republicanism in 
the United States, should perfect union exist. There- 
fore, it would be well for Americans not to neglect their 
situation. Europe and America confront each other, a 
broad battle-field being spread out between them. The 
governments as now prevailing in them cannot endure. 
The continuance of republican institutions in America 
must prove the subversion of monarchy in Europe. 
This result is as certain as time is to endure, and it is 
not to be doubted that Russia has at fast been made to 
perceive it as a truth of importance even to her. Russia, 
though heretofore a friend to far-off republican America, 
Could not endure republicanism so near as Hungary, 
and, by quenching the Hungarian republic, united with 
herself, in close bonds, that firm and unalterable friend 
of hers, the house of Austria ; and Austria, especially 
7* 



72 A HISTORY OF „ 

after the Kosta and Hulsemann affairs, would be a warm 
advocate for a closer union of all monarchies for defence 
against the spread of republicanism. In fact, young as 
America was, when Hungary was crushed by the com- 
bined arms of two powerful despots, she was not 
easily restrained from reaching forth a delivering hand. 
Had our country been a half or a whole century older, 
with a population of one or two hundred millions of 
freemen, and with a navy in keeping with our popula- 
tion and resources, we could, without trouble, have seen 
fair play in Hungary's struggle with the house of Haps- 
burg. The day is at hand when the nations of the 
world will be obliged to bow in submission to the will 
of America, and free institutions will flourish through 
the encouragement of the great American republic. It 
will be so, or, through the agency of disunion and 
civil war, the arms of European monarchs shall crush 
out republicanism in this country, and despotism be 
again made universal. 

But this digression proceeds from the current of 
thought suggested by the statement that the con- 
tinuance of free institutions is dependent on the people 
of this country themselves, and that from the earliest 
period of our history, external and internal circum- 
stances have, under Providence, been exceedingly favor- 
able for their development. 

The consolidation of our Union was a difficult work. 
It is not yet complete. Its success is differently regarded 
by different persons. Its utility and beneficence, when 
looked down upon from some higher sphere, must be daz- 
zlingly conspicuous ; the American Union must by all 
impartial and benevolent minds be pronounced the 
greatest achievement, in the cause of humanity and 



THE WHIG PARTY. 16 

human progress, that has ever been accomplished by 
mortal hands. It is the day-star of Freedom through- 
out the earth, and the asylum for the oppressed of all 
nations. It is daily, throughout the world, the first arid 
last thought of down-trodden men ; and by night, 
in their dreams, the magnificent temple of American 
Freedom breaks upon their eyes as a vision of Paradise. 
But still the Union may have its faults. It may work 
unequally in some instances. The government of the 
Union may not be what the most refined theoretical 
moralist would prefer, and the legislation under it 
may occasionally seem unjust and oppressive to por- 
tions of the people ; but how little should such con- 
siderations weigh in the mind of the patriot when the 
value of the Union itself is considered ! 



74 A HISTOEY OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FEDERAL PRINCIPLES OF NEUTRALITY CONTINUED BY JEFFERSON. — HE 

WAS CHARGED WITH PARTIALITY FOR FRANCE. PARTY SPIRIT OF 

THOSE DAYS. — THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. — RESISTANCE OF BRITISH 
AGGRESSIONS. — VIOLENT OPPOSITION TO THE ADMINISTRATION IN NEW 

ENGLAND. HOSTILITY OF THE NORTH TO THE SOUTH MANIFESTED. 

ANTI-SLAVERY FEELING IN NEW ENGLAND IN 1796. VINDICTIVE 

SPIRIT OF NORTHERN PHILANTHROPISTS AT THE PERIOD OF THE FORM 
ATION OF THE GOVERNMENT. WHAT THE SOUTH, UNDER THE CIR- 
CUMSTANCES, OUGHT TO BE TOLERATED IN ATTEMPTING. COMPROMISES 

IN THE CONSTITUTION IN REGARD TO SLAVERY. ANTI-SLAVERY IN NEW 

ENGLAND BORROWED FROM THE DESIGNING ENEMIES OF OUR COUNTRY IN 

OLD ENGLAND. ENGLAND, ON FAILING TO ENSLAVE OUR FOREFATHERS, 

AT ONCE COMMENCED TEACHING THEM THE PRINCIPLES OF NEGRO FREE- 
DOM AND EQUALITY. — HER OBJECT IN THIS. EFFECT OF HER WRITERS 

ON AMERICANS. — ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE, IT WAS THOUGHT, 
WOULD PUT AN END TO SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, AND RENDER 
THE CULTIVATION OF COTTON IN THE EAST INDIES PROFITABLE, ETC. 

Jefferson, as is well known, was not elected to the 
presidency the first time by the people. He and Aaron 
Burr having had an equal number of votes, the election 
was carried into the House of Bepresentatives. The 
selection was limited to Jefferson and Burr, though, 
of course, both Kepublicans. The Federalists, for reasons 
better attributed to party spirit than anything else, 
sustained Burr ; and, as there were other candidates, 
many ballotings were required before an election took 
place. We are told that the excitement was great, as 
party spirit ran high. The course taken by Burr, in 



THE WHIG PARTY. 75 

permitting himself to be used by the Federalists in op- 
position to Mr. Jefferson, rendered him unpopular with 
the Republicans, and from that time, although he had 
before been a distinguished patriot, holding responsible 
commands in the revolutionary army, arising to the 
vice-presidency, with fair prospects of ultimately reach- 
ing the presidency, he took a downward career, and 
finally became an object of general reproach, if not of 
infamy. His duel with Hamilton, his fillibuster enter- 
prise against Mexico, and his libertinism, are so insepar- 
ably connected with his memory, that his name scarcely 
ever recalls pleasant associations. 

Of Mr. Jefferson's administration it is not important 
here to speak further than necessary to show the prin- 
cipal distinctive political issues that from time to time 
existed between the Kepublican and Federal parties. 
The repeal by his administration of Mr. Adams' judi- 
ciary law, and of the alien and sedition laws, so called, 
needs no comment, as those laws were never magnified 
into the dignity of measures. Their agitation ceased with 
his first election. The purchase of Louisiana by Mr. 
Jefferson, although it caused much noise at the time, 
may be placed in the same category. It is true he 
was much censured for the act, as one in defiance of 
constitutional authority ; but, right or wrong, the thing 
was irremediable. The greatest cause of objection to 
Mr. Jefferson, on the part of the Federalists, was his 
alleged indifference or hostility to commercial interests, 
and his general views in regard to the foreign policy 
of the country. It was insisted that he was a favorer 
of the French Revolution, and an enemy of England. 
Probably the true admirer of Mr. Jefferson at this 
day would claim in his behalf some degree of truth 



76 A HISTORY OF 

in both of those positions ; but as to whether his 
feelings in favor of France and against England were 
carried to a censurable point while president, remains 
a question for the decision of the candid historian. 
It would be hard to establish this to the satisfac- 
tion of a Jeffersonian Democrat at the present day. 
When we look back upon his administration, we 
cannot, so far as the foreign policy of the nation was 
concerned, help observing in it with pleasure much of 
the conservatism exhibited in the preceding administra- 
tions of Washington and Adams, as if inspired by their 
illustrious examples. But Mr. Jefferson had obstacles 
to encounter not experienced by his predecessors, and 
met them in such a manner as appeared to him the most 
advisable. His resistance of British aggressions, as well 
as that continued by Mr. Madison, produced an aston- 
ishing degree of opposition and excitement in portions 
of the country, and came near, as thought by some, 
producing a dismemberment of the Union. The seat of 
this excitement and opposition was New England. 
Massachusetts, that has been more benefited by the 
Union than any of the states, accepted it with reluct- 
ance. The United States Constitution, when submitted 
to her convention of delegates, was only adopted 
through the strenuous exertions of her popular gov- 
ernor, Hancock, and that by a very slight majority. 
The exact feelings of all the New England people in 
regard to forming the Union it would be vain to en- 
deavor to portray ; but it is very certain that when the 
system, as adopted, was proposed, many bugbears arose 
in the minds of the people to incline them to recoil 
from it. The leading men of those days saw clearer 
into the measure than the masses did, and, as the most 



THE WHIG PAETY. 77 

eminent men in the country then had great weight with 
the people, their influence secured its adoption. But it 
was not natural that the Puritans of New England 
should find their hearts cleaving with very great fond- 
ness to their ancient persecutors, their Church of Eng- 
land neighbors in the South. And, more than this, 
the manners, habits and customs, of the South were not 
in accordance with New England sentiments. The 
South, too, abounded in slavery. The opposition to the 
South on account of her slavery institutions sprung up 
astonishingly quick, considering the North had but 
so recently themselves reformed in that matter. But 
so we believe it ever is ; towards those who practise 
vice the reformed are always less tolerant than those 
who were never tainted with it. An inveteracy towards 
the South, as such, soon manifested itself in noble New 
England, and views and feelings were exhibited far from 
creditable to this, in many respects, most interesting 
portion of the earth. As subsequent events fortunately 
proved, the illiberal feelings alluded to were at the time 
limited to but a small portion of the New England 
people ; but it was a portion that has since made itself 
felt, and during the last sixty years has promulgated 
them but too successfully, especially in the North. 
That portion was the most bitter faction that assailed 
the administration of Mr. Jefferson; and, as a specimen 
of their spirit, take the following from a leading New 
England journal which was published before Mr. Jef- 
ferson's election to the presidency : " Negroes are, in 
all respects, except in regard to life and death, the cattle 
of the citizens of the Southern States. If they were 
good for food, the probability is, that even the power of 
destroying their lives would be enjoyed by their owners, 



78 A HISTORY OF 

as fully as it is over the lives of their cattle. It can- 
not be that their laws prohibit the owners from killing 
their slaves because those slaves are human beings, 
or because it is a moral evil to destroy them. If that 
were the case, how can they justify their being treated, 
in all respects, like brutes ? for it is in this point of 
view alone that negroes in the Southern States are 
considered in fact as different from cattle. They are 
bought and sold — they are fed or kept hungry — they 
are clothed or reduced to nakedness — they are beaten, 
turned out to the fury of the elements, and torn from 
their dearest connections, with as little remorse as if 
they were beasts of the field." 

Many of the grounds of opposition to the Democratic 
party have, since Jefferson's day, become obsolete ; 
but as the hostility founded on sectional dislike, such 
as is evinced in the foregoing extract, has continued 
and constantly increased till the present time, and has 
ever formed an element in the party politics of the 
country, and was intimately connected with the fate of 
the late Whig party, it will be necessary to consider 
it a little more in detail. The sentence quoted above was 
published before New England had been encroached 
upon by the slave power. It was published, in con- 
nection with a vast amount of similar matter, about 
the close of Washington's administration, which must 
convince the candid mind that, at the outset, the abuse 
of Southern society and Southern institutions by New 
England people, was not and could not have been in 
retaliation for what in later days has been termed 
" Southern aggressions." In what, during the adminis- 
trations of Washington and John Adams, had the South 
misused the North ? But still we see at that time influ- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 79 

ential New England journals characterizing their South- 
ern neighbors as fiends. At that time even Louisiana 
and Florida had not been purchased, which might, as 
encroachments of the slave power, have been interposed 
as a justification. Candor must acknowledge that the 
sectional warfare between the North and South orig- 
inated in the former, as no historian can discover an 
excuse for such feelings as were manifested by such 
language as we have quoted. It is right that we of 
New England should consider this fairly ; because, if it 
be true in fact that we were the first to commence a 
crusade against the institutions and people of the South ; 
if we were the first to raise a fratricidal hand in sectional 
warfare ; if we were the first to arouse jealousy and 
hatred between the two sections of the country ; we 
should look to it well that our over-zealous humanity — 
to give the motive no worse a name — may not prove the 
ruin of our country. Modern expressions of Northern 
men and women against the South cannot well be more 
bitter and irritating than those used in New England in 
1796 ; but they are now more abundant, being found 
and heard everywhere. But in these later days the 
unmitigated hatred (no stronger, however, than enter- 
tained by many in 7 96) indulged by vast numbers in the 
North towards the South, is excused by the plea that 
the South is and has been scheming to extend her insti- 
tutions. Northern people are perhaps a little too incau- 
tious in accepting such an excuse for entertaining unfair 
and unfriendly feelings towards their Southern neigh- 
bors. We have a right to hate and detest slavery, and 
should belie our natures were we not to do so ; but to 
do injustice to those unfortunately afflicted with the 
charge of African slaves, were to render us worse than 



80 A HISTORY OF 

the slaveholders themselves. We are proud to think 
that New England has purer morals and religion than 
any other part of the world. For intelligence, virtue, 
and religion, we are unexcelled. It therefore becomes 
us, the first thing we do, to see that we are just. Let us 
take it for granted that the South is somewhat benight- 
ed ; that her religion is far from the genuine stamp ; that 
her morals are far inferior to those of New England ; 
still, is it becoming or morally right in us to bring railing 
accusations against them ? — to treat them worse than 
a Christian spirit would a fiend ? When divested of 
our prejudice and excitement, and reason and common 
sense assume the ascendency, we must look at the mat- 
ter in a different light. For their unfortunate institution 
no one pretends they are to blame. They are indebted 
for it to England and New England, without whose 
capital, sailors and ships, Southern slavery had never 
existed. For their ignorance we should pity them, and 
send them our schoolmasters, who in happy years 
past have ever found a cordial reception everywhere in 
the South. For their bad morals, and incorrect religion, 
we should extend our heartfelt sympathies, and do all 
in our power, by prayers in their behalf, and by setting 
them perfect Christian examples, to win them from the 
error of their ways. The good Christian, the judicious 
missionary, never attempts to convert and reform the 
victim of error by violent denunciations. If it be true 
that of late years the South has been anxious to increase 
the number of slave states, is it just to say that her 
object in so doing is to wrest from the North any of her 
rights ? Has the South, except in multiplying slave 
states, ever been seen infringing upon Northern rights ? 
It is not pretended. Then, would it be any stretch of 



THE WHIG PARTY. 81 

liberality on our part to make this allowance for her ; 
viz., that she, from the earliest period of our govern- 
ment, witnessing the commencement of a fierce crusade 
against her and her institutions, thought it, as a matter 
of safety, — of self-protection against growing Northern 
prejudices, — quite necessary for her to have the ascend- 
ency in, at least, one branch of the national govern- 
ment ? That, by increasing slave states, the South could 
expect to get the whole government into her hands, 
none but the most unlettered and simple-minded ever 
for a moment supposed. The great majority of the 
people are and ever must be in the free states ; and, 
without a majority in the Senate, the South must always 
be at the mercy of the North. That she should be re- 
luctant to trust to the sentiment of the North, of which 
she has personally witnessed so poor examples, no 
one is surprised ; and, under the circumstances, he must 
be a harsh judge of human actions, who would much cen- 
sure the South for the efforts she has made to secure 
some check upon what she feels she is destined to expe- 
rience of Northern aggressions. Of course, we shall 
never trample upon her rights, nor treat her otherwise 
than with justice and kindness ; but human nature is 
known to be an uncertain law, and we should not be 
surprised to find that our neighbors in the South desire 
a surer guaranty of their rights. We denounce the 
South violently because she has gained several states 
by the Louisiana purchase, and by the Mexican war. 
Some of them were free states ; more of them slave. 
Allowing all that is charged against her, in regard to 
these acquisitions, to be true, should the strong, power- 
ful, and magnanimous North treasure it up as a cause 
of hostility towards her? We must force ourselves to 



82 A HISTORY OF 

decide candidly these questions, or we shall ere long 
find we have no common country under the protection 
of whose strong arm we can quarrel with one another. 
That the South should struggle for the preservation of 
political power we should expect ; but, as that struggle 
ever has been and ever must be vain, we should witness 
it with feelings of sympathy ; and, when we bear the 
victories from her less successful hand, we should treat 
her with tenderness as an unfortunate rival. To exult 
over a fallen foe, and heap upon him opprobrious epithets, 
is characteristic of the warfare of demons, and not at 
all becoming the sons of New England. It is not dis- 
puted that the slave states have been increased by the 
acquisition of territory by our government ; but whether 
or not the North has not more profited by that increase 
of territory than any other section, is, to say the least, 
an open question. Moreover, in our fury towards the 
South, we forget that all the free states formed out of 
the north-western territory — the pride and strength 
of our country — were the gift of Virginia. That noble 
state gave them to the Union, and voluntarily devoted 
them to freedom. Why should we forget this while 
nursing our hatred towards that Section ? 

We have seen that early, in New England, the hatred 
of the South, among some classes, was bitter in the ex- 
treme. It vented itself in denunciations of slavery. 
The slave controversy was more or less agitated at the 
formation of the Confederation, and then again at the 
adoption of the Constitution. At those dates, however, 
the bearing of slavery upon the ratio of representation 
occasioned the most difficulty. The bulk of the slaves 
were in the South, as many for that market had been 
sold by Northern States preparatory to acts of emanci- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 83 

pation. The representation was to be according to the 
population, there being one representative to a certain 
specified number of people. In the enumeration, as a 
basis of representation, every living being in human 
form who was a citizen was to be counted : old and 
young ; men, women, and children ; white, red, and 
black ; and inmates of asylums and prisons. There 
was to be no exception — all human beings were to be 
counted. The South saw no reason for exempting their 
slaves from the enumeration ; but the North objected. 
That the. slaves should form a basis of representation, 
was conceded ; but the framers of the Constitution would 
not recognize them as equal to whites, and it was pro- 
vided that in their enumeration two-fifths should be 
thrown out, leaving three-fifths of the slaves to be in- 
cluded with the free, in establishing the basis for repre- 
sentation and taxation. The limitation of course was 
against the South ; but she surrendered the point out 
of a compromising spirit. But the world saw, from the 
discussions on the subject, that slavery was eventually 
to become an element of discord in the United States. 
By recurrence to unerring guides it will be found that 
the anti-slavery outcry in New England was but the 
echo from a shriek for freedom by liberty -loving Old 
England. Wilberforce and his coadjutors commenced 
their labors in the anti-slavery cause just at the period 
of the adoption of the United States Constitution. It 
was about that period that Parliament, under the Wil- 
berforce movement, began to agitate the abolition of the 
slave-trade ; and the speeches of British orators, the 
books and essays of British authors, and the songs of 
British poets, vividly portraying the foul sin of slavery, 
were instantly reproduced, perused, and wept over, in 
8* 



84 A HISTORY OF 

New England. Cowper's spirited poem, which came 
forth at that period, no doubt inspired millions of hearts 
with hatred of slavery. Our own early sentiments of 
hostility to human bondage were awakened and fixed 
by that touching production. It was not easy to induce 
the British government to give up the slave-trade, and 
emancipate her slaves ; but still it was finally accom- 
plished. The labors of Wilberforce and Clarkson, in 
those enterprises, are familiar to the world ; but these 
philanthropists alone would never have accomplished 
much, had not their efforts been in accordance with what 
was conceived to be the policy of the government. Pitt 
favored the abolishment of the slave-trade ; but success 
was more than even he could accomplish. Fox under- 
took it, and his effort was crowned with success. But 
it must not be taken for granted at once that humanity 
alone was England's motive for her action in regard to 
slavery. It would have been a ridiculous inconsistency 
for the nation that had just failed in an effort to enslave 
our forefathers in America, and was at the time em- 
ployed in reducing republican France to its former feu- 
dal bonds, to thus interest herself in the establishment 
of the freedom of African negroes, purely on the score 
of humanity. The fact is, by her keenest-sighted public 
men the inhumanity of the act was foreseen, and by 
subsequent events has been proved. The British states- 
men were obliged to resort to other arguments before 
their measures in regard to their slaves could be brought 
about. England considered that her material inter- 
ests were involved in the measure ; but whether they 
were or not is not perhaps yet fully determined. The 
abolition of the slave-trade did not seriously affect the 
production of our great cotton staple, for which Eng- 
land is dependent on us ; and consequently their slaves 



THE WHIG PAETY, 85 

in the islands off our southern coasts ;vere manumitted. 
Negroes, however, are not Anglo-Saxons. The enfran- 
chisement of those in the West Indies has not as yet 
imparted the slightest spark of the spirit of freedom 
to the negroes in our Southern States ; and, so long as 
our cotton plantations are worked by African slaves, 
Great Britain can never hope to compete with us in the 
production of the raw material. Notwithstanding the 
intrigues and efforts of the British court to prevent the 
consummation of our Union, and their studied designs 
of alienating the people of the Northern and Southern 
sections of the country from each other with a view of 
producing a separation ; and notwithstanding the mis- 
sion of her special agent a short time afterwards sent 
through New England to seduce her from the Union ; 
all such machinations have as yet resulted in nothing 
equal to the hopes of that scheming and ambitious 
power. Well indeed might England, in ITST and 1188, 
essay her intrigues and insidious influence to accom- 
plish what she so signally failed ten years before to ac- 
complish with the force of arms. The division and 
separation of the United States was at an early day of 
the Revolution a favorite project of the British cabinet, 
and two large armies were put in motion for its accom- 
plishment. One was to proceed up the Hudson to meet 
a large force under Burgoyne, who moved down Lake 
Champlain from Canada. The Green Mountain boys 
happened at that moment to be strongly in favor of 
union, and merrily enough escorted Burgoyne's army 
through New England to its music ; that is, to the tune 
of Yankee Doodle. The battle of Bennington checked 
Burgoyne's army and led to his surrender ; and in all 
human probability the success of the great revolutionary 



86 A HISTORY OF 

struggle turned upon that event. The success tf the 
Burgoyne expedition must have overthrown the Amer- 
ican cause, and the fate of that expedition was settled 
by the Verinonters. At that day, British sentiments 
were not particularly regarded amongst the Green 
Mountains. It is true, Vermont borrowed her inhab- 
itants from Massachusetts and Connecticut, but did not 
at first take along the exalted humanitarian feelings of 
those colonies. Their love of liberty and justice was 
not excelled anywhere ; but we are sorry to say that 
the original settlers of the Green Mountains, of whom 
Ethan Allen was a type, had not that regard for sacred 
things that was peculiar to the Atlantic colonies. Their 
disregard of Sabbath and sanctuary privileges, and their 
rough, uncouth, and somewhat profane, method of speech, 
would have rendered them outlaws in the more religious 
states of Massachusetts and Connecticut. But these 
Green Mountain boys, nevertheless, loved freedom and 
contemned vice and crime ; and when King George at- 
tempted to separate them from their Southern brethren 
by a fence of bayonets, they raised at Bennington a 
shout of defiance which was soon echoed by the Vir- 
ginians from Yorktown. But the rough and unpolislied 
manners of these boys have been much improved upon 
by their children, and the records of the state will now 
show the Vermonters the most Christian and virtuous 
people on earth. The reader, if he has doubts, will 
please examine the statute-books, and these will show 
a morality unparalleled. Horse-racing and gambling 
are prohibited ; theatrical and circus and all other kinds 
of shows are forbidden. Lotteries are dug up root and 
branch. Of course, no Vermonter ever sees a theatri- 
cal exhibition, go where he may, or ever pays a cent 
for lottery tickets. Sabbath-breaking, and profane 



THE WHIG PARTY. 87 

swearing are both visited with penalties ; and, as a 
prosecution for either was never known in the state, it 
follows as a matter of certainty t"hat such offences have 
never been committed. Kumselling is punished in the 
severest manner, and may be considered as forever at 
an end. And slavery ! her statute-books are sprinkled 
all over with acts in denunciation of it. Vermont has 
always had a wholesome horror of slavery, and, so far 
as sin may be involved in the system, nobody can doubt 
but her skirts are clean from it. It has ever been ob- 
jected to New England, by foreigners, that it abounds 
too much in cant. But the goodness of the Vermonters 
of later times is not in profession merely ; any one can 
look into their laws and see that all their excellences 
are carried out. That is the right way. A reform never 
becomes un fait accompli, until it finds its way into 
the statute-book. When such movements are found 
thus engrossed, it is a sure sign that the reformer has 
himself been in the legislature, and the accomplishment 
of his work can be relied on. But perhaps this is some- 
what digressive. The writer alludes to these things to 
show that his native state, though in early times distin- 
guished for rather rough settlers, is not now, in all moral 
reforms, behind the best state in New England. Of 
course, we would not claim that none of the leaven of 
unrighteousness, which originally abounded in the state, 
now remains ; because there are a few of us who have 
yet veneration for the somewhat antiquated and out-of- 
fashion institutions of our ancestors, and are rather a 
clog upon the progressive morality of the present age. 
Of such it is no less than fair to remark that our com- 
pulsory piety exists only by force of local law, and 
would not, probably, be recognized beyond the limits 
of the states in which such laws prevail. 



88 A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER IX. 

FACTIOUSNESS OF THE FEDERAL PARTY, AND ITS OPPOSITION TO THE 
WAR-MEASURES, CAUSE OF ITS RUIN. — ATTEMPT OF ENGLAND TO 

DESTROY AMERICAN COMMERCE. IMPRESSMENT OF SEAMEN AND 

THEIR TREATMENT. ORDERS IN COUNCIL AND FRENCH DECREES. 

BLOCKADE. DAMAGE TO AMERICAN COMMERCE. FRENCH AND 

BRITISH PARTIES IN THE U. S. AMERICAN COMMERCE IN THE NORTH. 

— THE CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR. — EMBARRASSING CONDITION OF THE 
GOVERNMENT. — JEFFERSON'S COURSE, ETC. 

The Federal party never recovered from its defeat in 
1800. Its dignity, propriety, and conservatism, never 
appeared so prominent after that event as before. 
In endeavoring to regain its lost ascendency, its efforts 
often became factious, and the judgment, the deliberate 
judgment, of the American people was finally pro- 
nounced against it. It would be a mistake, however, 
to suppose that that party did not embrace in its ranks 
some of the finest minds and purest patriots of the 
land ; nor must it be concluded that political perfection 
was the property of the successful party. The Whig 
party sprung from the ashes of the old Federal party, 
and succeeded it as the opposition of the Democracy ; 
but, before the nativity of the Whig party, there had 
been a change of times from the days of Jefferson, and 
a change in the situation and politics of the country. 
The Whigs, in fact, inherited no more of the party 
measures of the Federalists than they did of the Repub- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 89 

licans ; indeed, some of the leading Whigs had been 
Republicans, and many of the Democratic party for- 
merly belonged to the Federal party. The great 
measure by which the prospects of the Federalists were 
forever destroyed, was the war with England of 1812, 
Their fierce and factious opposition to that measure, and 
to the restrictive measures of Jefferson's administra- 
tion preceding the war, proved fatal to the hopes of 
Federalism, and was the means of establishing the 
ascendency of the Democracy for half a century. It 
will be necessary to take a hurried view of the causes 
of that war which had such potent influences on the 
politics of the country. 

The aptitude of America for commercial enterprises 
was early discovered by England, and the enterprising 
character of American sailors was beautifully noticed 
by Burke. On the establishment of independence, our 
merchant vessels began to cover the ocean. The estab- 
lishment of a navy was one of the patriotic accomplish- 
ments of the administration of John Adams, for which 
Democrats ought to venerate and love his memory; 
for to that navy were they indebted for the glory of the 
war that has given them such a permanent hold upon 
the affections of the American people. But our com- 
merce, from its dawn, was pounced upon by England. 
She rode the seas triumphant, and proclaimed and felt 
herself their mistress. The raging European wars had 
soon resulted in the destruction of all the commerce of 
Europe, and England and America were doing the car- 
rying-trade for the world. The promising aspect of 
American commerce was not favorably regarded by 
Britain. 



90 A HISTOEY OF 

It happened that, in prosecuting her wars with 
France, the British were constantly in great need of 
sailors and soldiers. Her method, on extraordinary 
occasions, of replenishing her navy, was by impressment. 
A naval officer with marines would go on land, and seize 
upon able-bodied men, and carry them away on board of 
ship, and compel them to serve, perhaps for years, 
before they were again permitted to visit their homes. 
Men-of-war would also board merchant vessels for the 
same purpose. Immediately after the establishment of 
our independence, Great Britain commenced impressing 
men from the United States merchant ships, wherever 
found upon the ocean. They did this under the pre- 
tence that they intended to impress British subjects 
only ; but the impressing officer having nothing to 
guide him but his discretion, and as at the time both 
America and her navy were regarded with contempt, it 
was often, nay, almost always the case, that more or 
less of American citizens were impressed. It was a 
maxim of the British law, " Once a subject, always 
a subject." The right of a citizen to expatriate himself, 
and become the citizen of another country, was not 
recognized by the laws of England. Consequently 
those American citizens depending upon naturalization 
for exemption from impressment, were uniformly seized 
by the impressing officers. The result was that citi- 
zens of foreign birth withdrew from our commercial 
service, much to its injury. These impressments con- 
tinued up to the war of 1812, and many were the Amer- 
icans forced to fight British battles against countries at 
peace with the United States. Not only this, but when 
war ensued between. Great Britain and the United 
States, American citizens were forced, under the lash, 



THE WHIG PARTY. 91 

and threats of death, to do battle against their own 
country. The number of impressments can never be 
accurately ascertained ; but it amounted to many thou- 
sands. The Java and Guerriere, when taken by our 
navy, had aboard of them many Americans who had 
been pressed into service against their country ; and 
the British navy everywhere abounded in impressed 
American seamen. Some American authorities at one 
time estimated the whole number of impressments as 
high as fourteen thousand ; and the number of native- 
born Americans in this manner dragged into the service 
of England was very large. Of course, our agents, 
consuls, and ministers, in the various parts of the 
British empire, exerted themselves in behalf of the 
impressed, and procured many discharges ; but these 
discharges were after great delay, and many hardships 
endured by the wronged citizen ; and, as ascertained at 
the close of the war, there were many who had been 
forced to drag out slavery in the British fleets until the 
war closed. 

At that day, Britain was not disposed to look very 
graciously upon this young republic. She was an 
ancient and haughty monarchy, and the United States 
were thought a little upstart of a government, for which 
her arrogance should have but little respect. The treat- 
ment of Americans thus impressed by British naval offi- 
cers was haughty and cruel. No greater indignity 
could be offered any country than to thus impress her 
citizens, and force them to bear arms against her. It 
was not only an outrage upon the rights of the indi- 
vidual under the laws of nations, but was also a gross 
outrage upon humanity, and could only be perpetrated 
by senseless tyrants. After war was declared against 



92 A HISTORY OF 

England by the United States, the American sailors thus 
impressed begged to be excused from serving against 
their own country, and claimed to be treated as prison- 
ers of war; but such applications were answered with 
irons and the lash. Authenticated cases of the kind 
were at the time established. Perhaps all British 
officers did not carry their contempt of the rights of 
Americans so far as this ; but many did. The impress- 
ments of American seamen were continual, notorious, 
and brutal in manner. Many instances of the kind 
were certified by authentic proof. Among others, we 
read of the impressment, and conveyance on board of 
the British man-of-war Brunswick, during the adminis- 
tration of John Adams, of Eliphalet Ladd, John Eddes, 
and others. One of the press-gang, with a drawn 
sword, cut Ladd on the forehead, and made a wound of 
three inches. Ecldes, for claiming to be an American 
citizen, was whipped with a rope's end until his back 
was bruised from his shoulders to his hips. Neither to 
Eddes nor to Ladd was any surgical aid allowed, and 
the sufferings subsequently experienced from their 
wounds were most intense. William Savage, impressed 
at the same time with Ladd and Eddes, was severely 
beaten by the boatswain's mate, who doubled a rope 
of about three inches and a half thick, and plied 
it to his neck, back, face, head, and stomach, until the 
mate was exhausted, when he gave the rope to one 
of the marines, who applied upwards of a hundred 
blows. Savage was awfully mangled, externally and 
internally, the infliction being followed with raising of 
blood. His cruel treatment was for his persistence in 
claiming to be an American citizen. The case of Isaac 
Clarke was . touching ; he -Was of Salem, Massachu- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 93 

setts. Many of the impressed were of that state. 
Clarke was impressed from the ship Jane, off Norfolk, 
by the British ship Porcupine, and presented the com- 
mander with his protection from a United States cus- 
tom-house. The paper was torn in pieces before his 
eyes with angry oaths, and he was commanded to duty. 
On Clarke's remonstrating, he was put into irons, and 
the next morning given two dozen lashes. He was 
then again put in irons, and kept on one biscuit and a 
pint of water for twenty-four hours. In this manner he 
was treated for a week, when he was asked by the com- 
mander if he would do his duty. On refusal, he was 
stripped, and again given two dozen lashes, and kept 
another week on the former allowance. Being then 
once more interrogated if he would go to work, Clarke 
insisted on his rights as an American citizen ; where- 
upon the commander told him he should be punished 
until willing to submit, and ordered a repetition of the 
two dozen lashes, and that a very heavy iron chain be 
put around his neck, and fastened to a ring-bolt in the 
deck, and that no person should speak to him, or give 
him anything to eat or drink, saving the before-men- 
tioned allowance, until he should consent to go to work. 
In that manner he remained nine weeks, and was so 
completely exhausted by hunger and thirst as to be 
obliged to yield. Clarke remained enslaved in the 
British service for upwards of two years. These cases 
are given as specimens, as no American citizen was 
impressed without the like or worse usage. But the 
United States at that time was in her infancy, and 
properly enough stood in awe of the greatest naval 
power in the world. The cabinet and admiralty courts 
of England were constantly beset by American agents 



94 A HISTORY OF 

and ministers ; but that power with fair pretences 
amused our officials, and moved on in her career of 
indifference as to our rights. Mr. Jefferson, when Sec- 
retary of State under Washington's administration, 
commenced remonstrances to the British court against 
impressments, insisting on the manly rule that "the 
vessel being American shall be evidence that the sea- 
men on board her are such." But what course to take 
was an embarrassing question for this country. We had 
no army, and our navy was in its infancy. Remonstrance 
and negotiation were resorted to, but to no satisfactory 
effect. It was universally felt in America that impress- 
ments were wrong ; but people were divided in opinion 
as to how long efforts for a peaceable settlement of the 
question, in lieu of a resort to arms, should be contin- 
ued. As England was at war with France, the question 
as to making war on the former drew into it the merits 
of the struggle between those two powers. The result 
was that those who were for making war on England 
were charged with being partisans of France ; and those 
in favor of submitting to English aggressions were 
denounced as hostile to the efforts of France to estab- 
lish freedom. 

But Great Britain did not limit her disregard of the 
rights of the young republic to the free appropriation 
of her sailors. While England and France were at war, 
America, being a neutral country, was entitled to carry 
on her commerce with both, saving in contraband arti- 
cles ; that is, in implements and munitions of war. Amer- 
ica could not only convey her own produce and manu- 
factures to the markets of those countries, but she 
could likewise carry the goods of other countries, and 
those obtained from their colonies, to them. After 



THE WHIG PARTY. 95 

Europe became involved in a general war, the carrying- 
trade of the United States increased, with wonderful 
rapidity. The whole exports of this country, foreign 
and domestic, during the years 1803, '4, '5 and ; 6, 
amounted to upwards of three hundred and thirty mil- 
lions of dollars. This rapid growth of our commerce 
excited in our haughty neighbor fearful forebodings, and 
it was seen that something must be done to give it a 
check. Accordingly, in 1*793, commenced the issue of 
that series of orders in council intended for the over- 
throw of American commerce. The order of that year 
directed all ships of war and privateers to seize all ships 
laden with goods, the produce of any colony belonging 
to France, or carrying provisions or other supplies for 
the use of such colonies, and to bring the same with 
their cargoes to legal adjudication in the courts of ad- 
miralty. This order was in direct violation of interna- 
tional law, and in opposition to repeated decisions of 
British courts of admiralty ; and what rendered it more 
unjust was the fact that it was issued with secrecy, 
evincing on the part of England a decided disposition to 
plunder. American merchants suffered largely by this 
order, which caused indignation amongst all parties in 
the United States. Such an act at this day would not 
be tolerated a moment. 

But the British orders in council of May 16th, 
1806, were a still stronger blow aimed at the rights of 
neutrals, of which the United States were the principal, 
and nearly the only one. It was the famous order for 
blockading the whole coasts of Germany, Holland, and 
France ! It is well understood that, by the law of 
nations, when two powers are at war they are respective* 
ly invested with certain rights and privileges in regard 
9* 



96 A HISTORY OF 

to neutrals which they do not possess in time of peace. 
The right of blockade is one of these rights ; the right 
of search another. The latter mentioned right allows 
the vessel-of-war of a belligerent to visit the trading 
vessels of neutrals dealing with her enemy, to see if 
they have aboard any contraband articles. A declara- 
tion of blockade, when made by a belligerent of his 
enemy's ports or harbors, is a prohibition to all the 
world from entering into them for purposes of commerce ; 
and, when properly made, and under the proper circum- 
stances, all the world is bound to regard it. If, after 
the regular blockade of a port, a neutral vessel enters, 
it is liable to seizure ; and, if seized, is forfeited. But, 
to render a declaration of blockade justifiable and regu- 
lar, it must proceed from the right authority, be publicly 
made, and maintained with sufficient blockading force. 
In this respect, the laws of nations require that, in order 
to render the communication with any such place unlaw- 
ful to a neutral, the blockading force must be actually 
present, investing it, and with sufficient power to render 
such communication with it hazardous. But think of 
the British order of blockade of the whole coast of 
Europe from the Elbe to Brest! — nearly a thousand 
miles ! All the navies in the world would have been 
insufficient to properly invest, as by blockade, so exten- 
sive a coast ; and yet, under the shadow of that order, 
Great Britain claimed the right, and exercised the privi- 
lege, of seizing upon every merchant ship that had 
traded upon those tabooed coasts, and made free plun- 
der of them ! It was no more nor less than the assumed 
right of England, by virtue of her own sovereign will 
and power, to forbid all nations of the earth from trading 
with her enemy. It was a decree made when American 



THE WHIG PARTY. 97 

commerce had, prior to the war, reached its highest 
point, and was intended to drive it from the ocean. 

' At the time this extraordinary order in council, which 
was aimed at the commerce of America, and designed 
for the benefit of that of England, appeared, Napoleon 
was at Berlin. Western Europe at the time was pretty 
much under the control of that extraordinary genius. 
Bonaparte had excluded British goods from the country 
between the points that bounded the blockade, in retal- 
iation for which, or to force her own wares into those 
countries, the declaration of blockade was made by 
England. Immediately, however, on receiving notice 
of the order of the British government, Napoleon issued 
what has been called the Berlin decree, blockading the 
British Isles! A decree no doubt intended as a slur 
upon the British orders in council, as he had no means 
of executing it. The spirit of those orders and decrees 
was well understood at the time by the Americans, as 
by the English order their commerce was foully invaded, 
while by the French decree they received no injury at 
all. It was clear enough that American commerce, and 
not solely the injury of France, was aimed at by that 
high-handed measure. 

To pass over the millions of dollars' damage done to 
American commerce by these British orders in council, 
— and not stopping to consider the indignation of the 
Americans, their attempts at obtaining redress, and 
the sayings and doings of the American apologists for 
the course of Great Britain, — we will pursue the conduct 
of that power a little further. In passing, perhaps a 
word is due to the apologists for Great Britain. There 
were not many Americans that attempted to justify her 
acts fully ; but many who were disposed to extenuate 



98 A HISTORY OF 

and submit to them. It must not be forgotten that 
America has always read European history, and studied 
its politics, through British spectacles. This country 
received its prevailing opinions of the' French Revolu- 
tion, and of Napoleon Bonaparte, from British writers ; 
and it is now known that those writers were either the 
voluntary or subsidized champions of the British gov- 
ernment. New England, taking the character of Napo- 
leon from England, could not but feel the deepest 
anxiety for his overthrow, as he had been pictured a 
monster of passion, vice, and atheism. So abhorrent 
were French infidelity and sensuality made to appear to 
Americans, that many enlisted their feelings deeply in 
the cause of England and her allies, and were quite 
innocently seduced into the belief that the orders in 
council were necessary instrumentalities for the over- 
throw of Napoleon. Not a few of our people thought 
we ought to make common cause with England against 
her enemy ; and, of course, such were not disposed to 
find fault with any necessary step taken by that gov- 
ernment, if thought to be taken solely for the purpose 
alleged, although it might conflict somewhat with Amer- 
ican interests. The fact is, the simplicity and sincerity 
of such Americans rendered them the easy dupes of 
British duplicity. England has ever been a loud 
preacher, and her fortune has depended much on. the fact 
that quite a large portion of the world is governed solely 
by preaching. If satisfied that this is right, there are mul- 
titudes who never inquire further, or take the trouble to 
ascertain whether the preacher's language is hypocriti- 
cal or sincere. But England, finding her will and 
pleasure to be the only code of laws necessary for her 
to observe on the ocean ; that, do what she might, her 



THE WHIG PARTY. 99 

acts would not only be acquiesced in by this country, 
but apologized for by many of our people ; that, since 
the triumph here of the party charged with French views 
and principles, a strong feeling of disaffection had 
sprung up between two portions of the country, the 
northern portion becoming warmly English in their sym- 
pathies ; and finding, in short, that there was a proba- 
bility that, by playing upon that sectional feeling, and 
endeavoring to bring the Democratic administration into 
disgrace, an entire separation of the states might prob- 
ably be effected, she carried her insolence and audacity 
so far as soon to arouse the indignation of the whole 
country to the highest pitch. On the twenty-second of 
June, 180T, upon our own coasts, off Norfolk, the British 
vessel Leopard attacked the American frigate Chesa- 
peake, killing three men, and wounding many, and took 
from her four men, one of whom was tried and hanged 
as a deserter, and the others retained some five years 
before they obtained their freedom. An instance of a 
more wilful and insolent disregard of a nation's rights 
is scarcely to be found in history. The commander who 
perpetrated the act was guilty of a high crime, — was 
truly guilty of murder, — and should have been properly 
punished. But in the British navy a feeling of contempt 
for American rights was prevalent, and the overbearing 
and haughty conduct of British officers was everywhere 
encountered by American naval officers. The affair of 
the Chesapeake was the fruit of the long-growing con- 
tempt of British lordlings for American pretensions. 
The act itself, as well as the manner it was dealt with 
by England, spoke volumes. It is true the British gov- 
ernment disavowed it ; but, instead of punishing the 
offender, he was rewarded. As a matter of form, and 



100 A HISTORY OV 

to give the appearance of censure, he was removed from 
the station he then occupied, but was placed in a more 
desirable one. 

The measures taken by Mr. Jefferson in resistance 
to British aggressions were at the time violently de- 
nounced, and, perhaps, were not the wisest that could 
possibly have been taken ; but what better course, under 
all the circumstances, could have been pursued, would 
be hard to discover. As for war with England, the 
thought was considered, even by the Federalists, as 
ridiculous. Without granting that war should have at 
once been declared, no measures better than those 
taken by Jefferson could possibly have been resorted to. 
The first step, after the attack on the Chesapeake, taken 
by Mr. Jefferson, was the issue of a proclamation requir- 
ing all armed vessels commissioned by Great Britain, 
then within the waters or harbors of the United States, 
to leave immediately, and forbidding the future entrance 
of such vessels into the same. This proclamation 
was made July 2d, 1807. During that year intense 
excitement pervaded the country. England was power- 
ful, and daily increasing in power, acquiring immense 
gains by her commerce, and by what she plundered from 
other nations. But the commerce of the United States 
wae not yet annihilated, nor was this country bullied 
into a partial position in regard to the European contro- 
versy. It seemed to be expected by England that 
America would resent the Berlin decree of Napoleon, 
although as to us it proved an entire nullity. That 
American commerce, and not solely the design of affect- 
ing France, formed the objects of the orders in council, 
was apparent from the order of November 11th, 1807, if 
never before. A reason for this, order was the complaint 



THE WHIG PARTY 101 

that the United States had acquiesced in the Berlin 
decree. The last-mentioned order declared that all ves- 
sels bound to France or any of her dependencies, or any 
port from which British vessels were excluded, and all 
vessels bearing French consular certificates of origin of 
cargo, should be liable to seizure and forfeiture ! The 
weight of all these orders fell with crushing effect upon 
1his country. They were commercial in their objects. 
France had no navy that durst appear upon the ocean ; 
and Napoleon, though he could issue retaliatory decrees, 
could not stretch his arm beyond the coast. They were 
decrees, el preterea nihil. His Milan decree was in 
answer to the .orders of November 11th, 1807 ; but 
Napoleon, though omnipotent on land, had no power to 
enforce his decrees upon the ocean. Immediately after 
the orders in council of November 11th, to wit, on the 
25th of November, 1807, an additional order was issued 
to the effect that trade might be permitted between the 
United States and France, and French dependencies, on 
the condition that the vessels engaged in it should enter some 
British port, pay a transit duty, and take out licenses ! 
Between the extravagances of the British and French 
decrees, American commerce was in danger of annihila- 
tion. It could not escape falling a victim to either one 
or the other of these powers ; if it escaped Scylla, it was 
in danger of falling into Charybdis. 



102 A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER X. 

THE PROTECTORS OP NEW ENGLAND COMMERCE AND OF THE HONOR OP 

THE COUNTRY FOUND IN THE SOUTH AND WEST THE EMBARGO. — 

THE ELECTION OF MR. MADISON. THE DESTRUCTION OF COMMERCE 

OCCASIONED BY BRITISH ORDERS IN COUNCIL CHARGED TO THE EM- 
BARGO. — RESISTANCE OF THE EMBARGO IN NEW ENGLAND. STATE 

RIGHTS AND NULLIFICATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. — ■ JOHN HENRY SENT 
BY ENGLAND TO FOMENT DISUNION. — HIS DESPATCHES. — THE ERS- 
KJNE TREATY. — NON-INTERCOURSE. — COURSE OF ENGLAND. 

It is natural for political parties to find fault with 
each other's acts ; and human weakness, which is the 
attribute of all parties, should not be overlooked in the 
study of history. New England was the seat of Fed- 
eralism, and the encroachments of England upon our 
commerce were peculiarly oppressive to that part of the 
country. In preventing the people of the United States 
from enjoying the carrying- trade for the colonies of 
France and Spain, England aimed a blow at the interests 
of New England. This was felt to be so. From H93 
up to a late period in the administration of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, the leading merchants of the North were loud in 
their denunciations of England's outrages upon Amer- 
ican commerce ; but, when the time came for a vindi- 
cation of the rights of that commerce, it seems quite 
strange to find that its defenders and champions were the 
West and South ; and that the North was, as a general 



THE WHIG PARTY. 103 

thing, opposed to the measures taken by the general 
government for its protection. 

The insolent attack upon the Chesapeake by the 
Leopard, took place on the twenty-second day of June, 
1807. Mr. Jefferson called an extra session of Congress 
on the twenty-sixth day of October ; and the remedy 
by that body devised for the hostilities to American 
commerce practised by France and England was the 
embargo, which was intended to wholly suspend all 
foreign trade. An act to this effect was passed on the 
twenty-third of December. That the embargo was a 
necessary and justifiable measure, under the circum- 
stances, no one now would doubt ; but that it was con- 
tinued too long, to the exclusion of other remedies, may 
be true enough. It was continued until the first of 
March, 1809, — to the administration of Mr. Madison, — 
before it was repealed. It was certainly a heavy blow 
to England, as the United States had become, as a mar- 
ket, almost indispensable to her ; but, unfortunately, 
New England felt that she was also a sore sufferer by 
the measure. 

In the complaints of New England there was thought 
to be much unfairness. Her commerce, it is true, was 
prostrated ; but how could it exist under the British 
orders and French decrees ? The embargo was the 
result of these orders and decrees ; but, as the fall of 
our commerce was subsequent to the embargo, many 
were disposed to limit their vision to that act, and see 
nothing beyond. Therefore, by many, the ruin of com- 
merce was charged to the embargo, as though, it had not 
been annihilated by England and France. The embargo 
was laid to save American property and honor. If the 
country was not in a condition to vindicate its honor 
10 



104 A HISTORY OP 

upon the ocean, it was resolved to withdraw from that 
theatre until it could acquire more power, or become 
enabled to maintain its rights through some other 
medium. But, allowing the embargo to have been an 
unjustifiable and impolitic act, still, while it was the 
law of the land, all parts of the country should have 
submitted to it. Its evasion should not have been coun- 
tenanced by upright and moral men. Although all parts 
of the country conceded to New England the very high- 
est character for virtue, intelligence, and the Christian 
graces, it was in bitter terms complained of her that she 
did all she well could, short of civil war, to nullify the 
acts laying restrictions upon commerce. It is true 
she pretended that the embargo was unconstitutional ; 
but the uncharitable considered this view taken by her 
of it only as -a pretence. To attempt to throw off alle- 
giance to unpleasant laws, by affecting to consider them 
unconstitutional, was thought to be disingenuous, as 
there was a ready legal way of testing that question. 
Although embargo acts had been passed under the 
administrations of Washington and Adams, and are 
clearly within the constitutional power of Congress, 
the one laid under the administration of Mr. Jefferson 
was pronounced unconstitutional, and denounced as a 
high-handed act of tyranny. As the excitement occa- 
sioned in the North by the embargo act, and the 
enforcing act, so called, was extreme, — as the opposi- 
tion was so violent as to render that measure almost a 
dead letter in New England, and attract attention 
abroad, and lead to singular events, — -it will be well 
for the reader to recall more particularly to his memory 
the spirit of those times. Early in 1809 the people of 
Boston, in town-meeting assembled, in a memorial to 



THE WHIG PARTY. 105 

their own legislature, prayed the interposition of that 
body for relief from what was styled an " unconstitu- 
tional measure of the general government." It was 
not probably a personal liberty bill then contemplated 
by the memorialists, but a bill to free them from all 
restraints in their pursuit of happiness. During the 
pendency of the embargo through the year 1808, groat 
intemperance of feeling was manifested in the New 
England States. It was thought, at home and abroad, 
that the country was verging to a separation, as the 
Northern States charged the Southern ones with being 
the enemies of their prosperity. For instance, as a 
specimen of the expressions of Northern people upon 
the subject, the Boston Eepertory said : " We know, if 
the embargo be not removed, our citizens will ere long 
set it at defiance. It behooves us to speak ; for strike 
we must, if speaking does not answer." Mr. Hill- 
house, a United States senator, in a speech upon the 
subject, said : " In my mind the present crisis excites 
the most serious apprehension. A storm seems to be 
gathering, which portends, not a tempest on the ocean, 
but domestic convulsions ! However painful the task, 
a sense of duty calls upon me to raise my voice against 
the bill. I feel myself bound in conscience to declare, 
lest the blood of those who shall fall in the execution of 
this measure may lie on my head, that I consider this to 
be an act which directs a mortal blow at the liberties 
of my country ; an act containing unconstitutional pro- 
visions, to which the people are not bound to submit, 
and to which, in my opinion, they will not submit." 

The Boston Cenlinel, of September, 1808, said: "This 
perpetual embargo being unconstitutional, every man 
will perceive that he is not bound to regard it. If the 



106 A HISTORY OP 

petitions do not produce a removal of the embargo, the 
people ought immediately to assume a higher tone. The 
State of Massachusetts has a duty to assume. This 
state is still sovereign and independent." The Boston 
Gazette, of the same period, said : " It is better to suffer 
the amputation of a limb, than to lose the whole body. 
We must prepare for the operation. Wherefore, then, 
is New England asleep ? Wherefore does she submit 
to the oppression of enemies in the South ? Have we 
no Moses, who is inspired by the God of our fathers, 
and will lead us out of Egypt ? ;? 

But the mission of a British emissary, John Henry, 
will perhaps show, as well as the above extracts, the 
dangerous point to which party prejudices had spurred 
many Northern people. The embargo had produced 
great suffering in England, and was the first blow, after 
the peace of ; 83, that had had any tendency to bring 
that overbearing power to her senses. The American 
trade was a vital spot in the British system. Unfortu- 
nately for Britain, she was dependent on the United 
States, and was taught, by the struggles ending with 
the last war, that she had everything to lose, and noth- 
ing to gain, by ruptures with this country. The embargo 
impaired her revenues, shut her manufactories, and 
threw thousands of her ped'ple out of employ, a charge 
upon the kingdom as paupers. It was then she at- 
tempted, and, to a considerable extent, with success, 
to carry on trade with the American people in defiance 
of the laws, and even resorted to an open encourage- 
ment of smuggling ; but, despite all such efforts, she 
found that American trade was a consideration that of 
itself would command a respect for American rights. 
Impressed with this fact, early in 1809, Mr. Erskine was 



THE WHIG PARTY. 107 

sent over with powers to arrange matters with Mr. 
Madison's administration, on a satisfactory basis. Mr. 
Erskine arrived at the seat of government not many 
days after Mr. Madison's inauguration, approached his 
cabinet with old-fashioned, straight-forward English 
professions of good-will and honesty, and a settlement 
of the difficulties then pending was at once agreed upon. 
The basis for a treaty was settled on the 17th of April, 
1809. Trade with England was to be restored, and 
she was to restore to freedom the Americans taken 
from the Chesapeake, make satisfaction for that outrage, 
and rescind her orders in council of 1807. The entire 
cordiality with which Mr. Madison met the British over- 
tures took the Federalists by surprise, as they had 
supposed his administration was to be but a bureau of 
the French emperor's government, and subject to the 
imperial will. The Federal and Republican parties were 
both too jealous of each other, and scarcely ever did 
each other justice. But, unfortunately for the success 
of the Erskine negotiation, the violent sectional demon- 
strations of New England in 1808 had attracted the 
attention of the British ; and, at the same time that Mr. 
Erskine was despatched to the seat of the United States 
government, Governor-General Craig, of Canada, sent 
into New England an emissary, by the name of John 
Henry, to make observations, and report the prospects, 
in case the American foreign difficulties should be con- 
tinued, of a division of the Union. Mr. Henry went first 
to Burlington, Vermont, then to Windsor, and passed 
through New Hampshire to Boston, Massachusetts, 
where he remained some two or three months. From 
these places he transmitted to his employer, the Gov- 
ernor-General of Canada, twelve despatches, in which he 
10* 



108 A HISTORY OF 

pretended to set forth truly the political situation of 
New England, the state of her feelings as to the national 
government, and the part she would act in event of a 
war with England. From Burlington, February 14th, 
1809, he wrote : " I learn that the governor of this state 
is now visiting the towns in the northern section of it, 
and makes no secret of his determination, as commander- 
in-chief of the militia, to refuse obedience to any com- 
mand from the general government which can tend to 
interrupt the good understanding that prevails between 
the citizens of Vermont and his majesty's subjects in 
Canada. It is further intimated that, in case of a war, 
he will use his influence to preserve this state neutral, 
and resist, with all the force he can command, any 
attempt to make it a party. I need not add that, if 
these resolutions are carried into effect, the State of Ver- 
mont may be considered as an ally of Great Britain." 
However, when Mr. Henry reached the eastern side of 
the state, where there were more Democrats, his opinion, 
as expressed above, was somewhat modified. His first 
despatch from Boston was under date of March fifth. A 
few extracts from his various letters will show their 
general tenor and scope. In that of March thirteenth, 
from Boston, he said: "You will perceive, from the 
accounts that will reach you in the public papers, that 
the Federalists of the Northern States have succeeded in 
making the Congress believe that, with such ah opposi- 
tion as they would make to the general government, a 
war must be confined to their own territory, and might 
be even too much for that government to sustain. * * * 
To bring about a separation of the states, under distinct 
and independent governments, is an affair of more uncer- 
tainty, and, however desirable, cannot be effected but by 



THE WHIG PARTY. 109 

a series of acts, and a long-continmd policy tending to 
irritate the Southern and conciliate the Northern people. 
The former are an agricultural, and the latter a commercial 
people. The mode of cherishing and depressing either 
is too obvious to require illustration. This, I am aware, 
is an object of much interest in Great Britain, as it 
would forever secure the integrity of his majesty's pos- 
sessions on this continent, and make the two govern- 
ments, or whatever number the present confederacy 
might form into, as useful and as much subject to the 
influence of Great Britain as her colonies can be ren- 
dered." In his other letter, from the same place, Mr. 
Henry, among other things, said : "It should be the pecu- 
liar care of Great Britain to foster divisions between the 
North and South, and, by succeeding in this, she may 
carry into effect her own projects in Europe, with a 
total disregard of the resentments of the Democrats in 
this country." * * * "A war would produce an 
incurable alienation of the Eastern States, and bring the 
whole country in subordination to the interests of Eng- 
land, whose navy would prescribe and enforce the terms 
upon which the commercial states should carry, and the 
agricultural states export, their surplus produce. All 
this is as well known to the Democrats as to the other 
party ; therefore they will avoid a war, at least until the 
whole nation is unanimous for it. Still, when we con- 
sider of what materials the government is formed, it is 
impossible to speak with any certainty of their measures." 
After the Erskine negotiation, under date of May twen- 
ty-fifth, he wrote : " The unexpected change that has 
taken place in the feelings of political men in this coun- 
try, in consequence of Mr. Madison's prompt acceptance 
of the friendly proposals of Great Britain, has caused a 



110 A HISTOKY OF 

temporary suspension of the conflict of parties. * * * 
I beg leave to suggest that, in the present state of 
things in this country, my presence can contiibute very 
little to the interests of Great Britain. If Mr. Erskine 
be sanctioned, in all he has conceded, by his majesty's 
ministers, it is unnecessary for me, as indeed it would 
be unavailing, to make any attempt to carry into effect 
the original purposes of my mission." 

The papers of Mr. Henry were transmitted to the 
British cabinet about the same time that the Erskine 
treaty was sent forward, and the result was that the 
British government refused to ratify the treaty, and 
alleged that Mr. Erskine had exceeded his instructions ! 
The cause of the rejection of the Erskine treaty was at 
the time incomprehensible to Americans. The Federal- 
ists concluded that Mr. Erskine had really transcended 
his authority, and not a few of them condemned Mr. 
Madison severely for entering into a treaty that, on its 
face, ought to have apprized him that the minister could 
not have been acting within the scope of his authority ! 
But, as Mr. Henry regarded his mission not a very hon- 
orable one, he claimed of his government more than 
ordinary compensation. As the ministry did not readily 
accede to his demands, he got into a passion, and, for a 
liberal compensation, placed all his papers, including his 
correspondence with members of the British cabinet, 
in the hands of our government, and they were laid 
before Congress, March, 1812, and published and cir- 
culated in the country. In those days the Henry papers 
were used by many Democrats to show that the Federal 
party was a disunion party ; but that could never have 
been justly said of it. The most that reasonable oppo- 
nents could say in the matter, would be that, as dis- 



THE WHIG PARTY. Ill 

closed by the papers, sectional prejudices of so serious 
a character were maturing, as finally to lead to an irrec- 
oncilable alienation of the Northern from the Southern 
portion of the country. Happily for our country, sub- 
sequent events soon extirpated the causes of disaffection 
growing out of our foreign relations, although the repu- 
diation of the Erskine arrangement again plunged us 
into difficulties, and revived party animosities with 
renewed vigor. But the principal reason for alluding 
to the Henry mission here is to show the policy of 
Britain, at that time, with regard to this country, and 
to exhibit what her feelings and views then were, 
and, from the nature of things, always must be, to- 
wards us. 

The non-intercourse act expired in May, 1810, when 
our government made propositions to both of the belli- 
gerents, that if either would revoke its hostile edicts 
that act should be revived and enforced against the 
other. Accordingly, the French minister of state in- 
formed the American envoy that the Berlin and Milan 
decrees were revoked, to take effect from the first day 
of the succeeding November, and proclamation was 
made by President Madison accordingly. As Great 
Britain had professed a willingness to repeal her orders 
whenever France should revoke her decrees, she was 
now called upon to fulfil her promise ; but, for various 
reasons discussed in the histories of those times, she 
refused, and continued to prey on the American com- 
merce. She stationed ships of war before the principal 
harbors of the United States, to board and search the 
American merchantmen departing or returning, and 
many of them were sent off to British ports as legal 
prizes. Many impressments were made, and the con- 



112 A HISTORY OF 

tempt manifested by British naval commanders, on all 
occasions, for the republican flag, was, perhaps, the 
natural result of the long-continued patience with 
which this country had submitted to aggression and 
insult. 



THE WHIG PARTY 113 



CHAPTER XI. 

ENGLAND COOPERATED WITH NEW ENGLAND TO BENDER THE ADMINIS- 
TRATION OF THE REPUBLICANS ODIOUS. — ENORMOUS LOSSES TO AMER- 
ICAN COMMERCE. — WAR DECLARED JUNE 18, 1812. — COURSE OF THE 
FEDERALISTS. — MEN OF THE TWELFTH CONGRESS. — CRAWFORD, 
CALHOUN, RANDOLPH, CLAY, ETC. 

The Americans had submitted to the aggressions of 
Britain, and the outrages of France, until endurance 
ceased to be a virtue, and until their submission began 
to cover the country with dishonor. Since the com- 
mencement of the obnoxious orders in council, Great 
Britain had captured nearly a thousand American mer- 
chant vessels, with their valuable cargoes, and had 
impressed thousands of our seamen. The injury inflicted 
upon our commerce was immense. The severest losses 
fell upon the commercial part of the country ; but, as 
the course taken by England was fast rendering the 
administration odious, the North opposed all retaliatory 
measures towards that power ; and, from what has been 
shown, it appears that the government saw that, if war 
should be resorted to, it would have to be carried on in 
opposition to Northern sentiment, and perhaps at the 
peril of the Union. Like Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison 
was disinclined to war. Everything in his power was 
done to obviate a resort to a measure which seemed 
destined to encounter the fiercest opposition of a large, 
powerful, and respectable portion of the country. 
England saw the perplexity of the Democratic adminis- 



114: A HISTORY OF 

tration, and detached to our coasts as many vessels-of- 
war as she could possibly spare, on purpose to annoy 
and harass our trade, and goad our government to a 
step which should prove its ruin. 

Early in November, 1811, Congress was assembled, 
and Mr. Madison, in a brief message, set forth the state 
of our difficulties with England and France, and called 
the attention of the Congress to some measures, pre- 
paratory to a war, but not absolutely implying its ne- 
cessity. Congress continued in session until the 6th 
day of July, 1812, and, on the 18th day of June, passed 
the act declaring war with Great Britain. Many other 
acts touching the navy, army, &c, were also passed 
during the session ; but the act declaring war was the 
one that excited the greatest party feeling. Most of the 
preparatory measures, as they were called, — measures 
increasing the navy and army, and placing the country 
in a warlike attitude, — were voted for by members of all 
parties. For this, the Federalists were afterwards ac- 
cused of duplicity. It was said that the Federalists did 
not believe that the Democrats dared venture on a war 
with England, and that for a long time they were ac- 
customed to taunt the administration party with 
cowardice and pusillanimity. Josiah Quincy, a member 
from Massachusetts, it is reported, said that the Dem- 
ocrats " could not be kicked into war." Hence, it 
was charged against the Federalists in Congress that 
they sustained all the preparatory measures, under 
expectation that the war would apt be declared, and 
that thus additional odium would fall upon the adminis- 
tration party. But perhaps fairness would concede 
that one opposed to the act of war, under the circum- 
stances, might deem it prudent to place the country 



THE WHIG PARTY. 115 

in a position more likely to command the respect of 
other nations. 

The Twelfth Congress contained many able men. 
Twenty years had wrought quite a change in the aspects 
of the two parties in Congress. If in the earlier Con- 
gresses the Federal party contained the most talent, in the 
Twelfth Congress the advantage, on the score of ability, 
was decidedly with the Republicans. Messrs. Lloyd of 
Massachusetts, Giles of Virginia, and Crawford of 
Georgia, were prominent men in the Senate, the first of 
whom was Federal, and the two last were Republicans. 
William H. Crawford was a native of Virginia, but was 
removed to Georgia when quite a child. He was born 
to poverty, and arose in the world by his energies, and 
by the power of his talents. He was admitted to the 
bar in 1798, and in 1803 was elected to the Georgia 
Legislature. He became a United States senator in 
1807, which position he occupied until appointed by 
Madison Minister to France in 1813. On his return 
from France, he was for a short time Secretary of War, 
and in 1817 was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, 
which place he held during Mr. Monroe's administra- 
tion. He was regarded as one of the soundest states- 
men of his time, and in 1824 was supported by a large 
party as a candidate for the presidency. Mr. Crawford 
was a man of extraordinary height and size, and said to 
have been in manner awkward and ungraceful. His 
integrity and high moral character, his firmness, decision 
and superior judgment, accompanied with boldness, 
inspired respect and confidence. He was a Republican, 
and in favor of the war measure. In fact, he was op- 
posed to the embargo, and in favor of an immediate 
resort to war, on occasion of England's first outrages 
11 



116 A HISTORY OF 

upon our commerce. John 0. Calhoun was, during the 
Twelfth Congress, a member of the lower house, and, 
as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, made 
an able report, setting forth a history of British ag- 
gressions and insolence, and recommended an appeal to 
arms. Mr. Calhoun's subsequent life is well known. 
Langdon Cheeves and William Lowndes were two mem- 
bers of the House from South Carolina, of much more 
than ordinary ability. They, as well as the most of the 
Southern members, were in favor of war with England, 
and their speeches on record in the proceedings of 
Congress are lasting memorials of their statesmanship 
and patriotism. It will be recollected that Felix 
Grundy, of Tennessee, was also a Republican member of 
the House during that Congress, as well as the talented 
Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, the singular John 
Randolph, of Virginia, the valorous Richard M. Johnson, 
of Tecumseh memory, of Kentucky, and likewise the 
brilliant Henry Clay, of the last-mentioned state. 
However, although Randolph commenced and closed life 
as a Democrat, he opposed the restrictive measures of 
Jefferson, and the war measure of Madison, with fanat- 
ical energy. He was at the time about forty years 
of age, having been born in 1TY3. He entered Congress 
in 1T99, and, saving a short interval while he occupied 
a place in the Senate, he continued a member of the 
House thirty years. For energy, for wit, for sarcasm, 
for invective, perhaps the House has never had his 
equal. He was a man of peculiar notions and feelings, 
and was as inaccessible, saving on his " right side/ 7 as 
a porcupine. When enlisted, his sympathies were per- 
haps as remarkable as his prejudices. His speeches 
always commanded attention, and were frequently 



THE WHIG PARTY. 117 

listened to with deep interest. He was a man of much 
reading, great originality of thought and expression, 
and entirely sui generis in manner and style. Although 
possessing great energy, much information, and re- 
markable vigor of intellect, his judgment was never 
considered reliable. He lacked that balance of mind, 
and those commanding reasoning organs, which bestow 
upon their possessor a sound judgment. 

Mr. Kandolph continued a warm supporter of Jeffer- 
son, until the introduction of a non-intercourse resolu- 
tion in 1806 ; from which period, until after the settle- 
ment of our foreign difficulties, he opposed the principal 
measures of the administration. He seemed almost a 
monomaniac in regard to England. France and the 
French emperor he looked upon with the impatience of 
the deepest hatred ; and England he admired as the 
champion of civilization. When war was talked of, 
his indignation at the mention of such a measure was 
not exceeded by that of Mr. Quincy. The power of 
Britain, with her thousand ships-of-war, was paraded 
before congressional audiences in terrible contrast with 
America and some ten or dozen ill-appointed vessels. 
The fact, too, that the United States had been for years 
at peace, and had no army, no discipline, no material at 
hand, while England had navies, disciplined and veteran 
armies, and all the appliances of war at her ready com- 
mand, was enlarged upon, and dreadful consequences 
predicted in case this country should presume to em- 
bark in a war with the mistress of the ocean. 

That the United States, at that period, was in an 
embarrassed and critical situation, and needed wise and 
patriotic counsels, and a firm and resolute hand, to direct 
her, is very evident. Mr. Madison was a fine civilian, 



118 A HISTORY OF 

but involuntarily shuddered at the idea, under the ad- 
verse state of things then existing, of involving his 
country in a conflict with England. The members of his 
cabinet felt the necessity of some bold movement, and 
his supporters, in both houses, saw that a war was 
necessary, and that there could be no honorable escape. 
Fortunately there was in the Congress of 1811 and '12 a 
young statesman whose spirit was equal to the occasion. 
Henry Clay, then about thirty-four years of age, was a 
member of the House. His superiority was at once re- 
cognized, and instinctively felt by all ; the speaker's chair 
was accorded to him. Mr. Clay has been too well known 
throughout the world, since those days, to render any 
account of him here necessary. He was a rare man ; 
he had a rare mission ; and his life and services have 
been of inestimable importance to his country. He 
was born during the Revolution — in 1777 — a year of 
stirring events in that great drama. In "IT were fought 
the battles of Princeton, Bennington, Brandywine, 
Germantown, Stillwater and Saratoga ; and a child born 
and cradled amidst such scenes should be expected to 
acquire some of the spirit peculiar to them. But Henry 
Clay was the poor son of a poor Virginia widow, draw- 
ing his life from the humblest origin. His story is told 
in a word. He was indebted to his genius and high 
spirit for all. In childhood, we see him neglected, in 
ragged garments riding to mill on horseback, and hear 
applied to him, as characteristic of all that was observed 
in regard to him, the title of " The Mill-boy of the 
Slashes." At an early age, on the marriage of his 
widowed mother, the humble home, in the care of which 
he had done his juvenile part, was removed from him, 
and he entered the great world to pursue his destiny. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 119 

He became a clerk in a store ; then an amanuensis for a 
judge ; and then a clerk and student in a law-office. 
At twenty, or thereabouts, we see him, destitute, friend- 
less, and entirely unknown, wending his way into the 
then new State of Kentucky, and opening a law-office at 
Lexington. An ambitious and noble soul, an aspiring 
genius, a high-toned and chivalrous spirit, an open and 
generous heart, we begin to sympathize with him, and 
thank Heaven that some good angel guided his steps 
to the kindly and magnanimous borders of old Kentucky. 
On seeing him on Kentucky ground, our apprehensions 
for his welfare vanish, for in the care of Kentuckians, 
we know he is safe. 

v But, if the reader will still pursue the vision, he will 
see the powers of young Harry unfolding, and behold 
Kentucky taking him to her heart, where he will ever 
rest. Egypt may forget her kings, and the dust of 
mummied monarchs may be scattered from decaying 
pryramids ; but Kentucky will never cease to hold the 
name of her beloved Clay in fond remembrance. With 
no education but that drawn from nature, and inter- 
course with others, it was surprising to behold with 
what marvellous effect Henry Clay could wield the 
minds and affections of men. He was tall, and pos- 
sessed a commanding figure. Although his features were 
not the most comely, he had an eye that ever spoke 
with a power scarcely excelled by a thrilling and most 
musical voice. When excited, his whole soul went forth 
in looks, voice and action ; and his emotions were so 
correct and natural that he was not human that could 
resist them. He was a natural orator. He was no 
hair-splitting logician ; no dresser up of wordy ha- 
rangues ; no school rhetorician ; but to him words were 
11* 



120 A HISTORY OF 

things, and his ideas were stirring realities, inspired by 
the senses rather than by a refined imagination. His 
knowledge of men was easily acquired, and extraordi- 
nary. No man was sufficiently dark and subtle to hide 
his motives under a guise that the eagle eye of Clay 
could not penetrate. He could read human character 
at a glance ; and, as he read, forth went, in speech and 
action, the treasure of his discoveries. As no man 
could wear a mask before him, he wore none himself. 
He had no concealments, no tortuous intrigues, no 
finesse ; truth and right were the great passions of his 
soul, and the convictions of conscience were at all times, 
in all places, and under all circumstances, his invariable 
compass and guide. Hence we see him apparently the 
creature of impulse. As new facts adduced new ideas of 
policy, we see him pursuing a new course ; and we 
never see him the slave of opinions. So far from ever 
being the sycophant of popular feelings, he was often 
seen bidding them a haughty defiance, and paying a 
seemingly supercilious disregard to the special instruc- 
tions of the Legislature on whose will he was dependent 
for his seat in the United States Senate. His love of 
country was enthusiastic and boundless. Her honor 
and interest were his study from an early age. It was 
singular, indeed, that the great interests of this nation 
should have been grasped so completely by so young a 
mind. Undisciplined in the schools as he was, at his 
first entrance upon public life, his views, for justness, 
maturity, and practicability, were in advance of those of 
the first statesmen of the day. Jefferson and Madison, 
older and more experienced public men than Clay, were, 
in regard to all the great interests of the country at that 
time, scarcely his superiors, if his equals. Under the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 121 

auspices of Clay's public labors, the impracticable 
domestic and foreign policy of Jefferson was exploded ; 
and it was at least curious to see the young speaker of 
the Twelfth Congress, by the proper arrangement of the 
committees, and by his spirit-stirring eloquence, forcing 
the war measure upon Mr. Madison. Beyond all cavil, 
Clay was the master-spirit of that Congress ; and the 
justice of his views and course nobody now doubts, 
although at the time they cost him much angry abuse. 






122 A HISTORY OP 



CHAPTEE XII. 

FEDERAL ASCENDENCY IN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW YORK. — CONDUCT Off 
THE FEDERALISTS. — PROSECUTION OF THE WAR EMBARRASSED BY 

THEM. HARTFORD CONVENTION. REVERSES AT DETROIT AND ON 

THE CANADIAN FRONTIER. THIRTEENTH CONGRESS. FACTIOUSNESS 

OF THE FEDERALISTS. HENRY CLAY'S CASTIGATION OF JOSIAH 

QUINCY. WAR CONTINUED. — THE NORTHERN PULPIT. — TRIUMPH 

OF AMERICAN ARMS, AND THE GLORY OF OUR NAVAL TRIUMPHS. 

PEACE OF 1814. AMERICAN HONOR VINDICATED, AND HER NAME 

RESPECTED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 

The declaration of war gave the Federalists the ascend- 
ency in New England, and New York had become op- 
posed to the administration. The election of President 
took place in 1812, and the Federalists, with many anti- 
war Republicans, selected Clinton as a peace candidate, 
to run against Mr. Madison. Mr. Madison, however, 
was reelected, and the war, amid unexampled opposition, 
was waged with vigor. The history of that war is too 
well known to need recital here. Its commencement 
was discouraging. The surrender of Hull, at Detroit, 
early in the campaign, and the ill-success of our troops 
upon the Canadian borders, excited gloomy apprehen- 
sions amongst Republicans, and gave encouragement 
to the Federalists. The Federalists were so blinded by 
passion as actually to exult in British victories, and ex- 
press chagrin at the triumph of American arms. Even 
the Massachusetts Senate, on the motion of Josiah 
Quincy, resolved, substantially, that it was improper for 



THE WHIG PARTY. 123 

a religious people to exult at victories achieved in a 
war not strictly defensive. The North threw many im- 
pediments in the way of the general government, to 
obstruct its prosecution of the war. The Governor of 
Massachusetts refused to place the state militia at the 
disposal of the United States officers, and New England 
continued her factious opposition to the administration 
until the close of the war. The celebrated Hartford 
Convention, however, held in December, 1814, was the 
most daring and dangerous measure of the Federalists, 
and was called at the suggestion of the Massachusetts 
Legislature. The convention was in session a fortnight ; 
but, as their discussions were conducted with closed 
doors, the exact temper of that body, and the precise 
ultimate object of its leaders, can only be imagined. 
There is no person, at the present day, of any party, 
that approves of the course of the Federalists during 
the last war ; but, although such a convention as that 
of Hartford was dangerous and highly improper under 
the circumstances, it should not be charged upon the 
conventionists, without full proof, that their real object 
was disunion. Although that body recommended radi- 
cal changes of the United States Constitution,- — changes 
abrogating almost all its compromises between the North 
and South, and fundamentally altering it in many re- 
spects, — there is no evidence that the recommendation 
was to be considered a prelude to a revolution. There 
were many men in the North who ardently desired dis- 
union ; but that the Hartford Convention was composed 
of such, was stoutly denied by the Federalists of those 
days. 

On declaring war, it was thought expedient by gov- 
ernment to conquer the Canadas. This project was 



\ 



124 A HISTORY OF 

violently denounced by the Federalists. Learned ha- 
rangues and essays were delivered to the people, teach- 
ing them that government had no constitutional power 
to force them to march out of the limits of the United 
States. The effects of such addresses were sorely felt 
upon the Canadian frontier. A body of American mili- 
tia under General Van Rensselaer passed over to Queens- 
town, and in defiance of General Brock's reinforcements, 
gained and held the British fort. General Van Rensselaer 
returned for the rear division of the American troops, 
who, putting themselves upon their constitutional rights, 
refused to cross the national boundary. The British 
fort received another reenforcement, and, of the thousand 
American soldiers who had crossed into Canada, scarcely 
any effected their escape. A desperate and bloody con- 
flict ensued, in which the British were entirely victori- 
ous, under the eyes of the obstinate militia. The affair 
of Queenstown, following the disgraceful surrender of 
Hull, and the violent opposition of a large, wealthy, 
and influential section of the country, rendered the 
administration of the government by the Republicans 
extremely embarrassing. In the midst of these calam- 
ities and discouraging circumstances, the Thirteenth 
Congress assembled, and the question of the contin- 
uance of the war was discussed with great warmth on 
both sides. The repeal of her orders in council by 
Great Britain had given the Federalists a show of reason 
for insisting that, if left to her own sense of right, she 
\ would render the United States justice. No Federalist 
'was more violent in his denunciations of the administra- 
tion than Josiah Quincy ; but the day of Federal power 
in the halls of the National Legislature was at an end. 
The assuming and domineering tone of that son of 



THE WHIG PARTY. 125 

Massachusetts was properly rebuked. The castigation 
given him by tLe thoroughly aroused and indignant 
Henry Clay was '• beyond expression severe. That 
member from Massachusetts must have experienced sin- 
gular sensations under the delivery by Clay of his im- 
mortal speech of January 8th, 1813. It was certainly 
curious to witness such a masterly vindication of the 
cause of New England commerce, under such peculiar 
circumstances. It was said that as Mr. Clay dwelt 
upon the outrages upon A.merican commerce, as he 
portrayed the wrongs inflicted upon Massachusetts 
sailors, as he pictured their capture, impressment into 
foreign service, and the indifference manifested towards 
their rights by the American government, — there was 
scarcely an eye in the house not moistened with tears. 
And the compliment paid to the American sailors was 
well deserved, as the result showed. 

But in New England the war was regarded by a large 
party as an abomination. The pulpit was very warm 
and active in its denunciation of it. Many divines, and 
some of them quite eminent, pointed to disunion as 
necessary. One distinguished clergyman said: "The 
Union has been long since virtually dissolved ; and it is 
full time that this part of the disunited states should 
take care of itself. " Another said: "If, at the pres- 
ent moment, no symptoms of civil war appear, they 
certainly will soon, unless the courage of the war-party 
should fail them.' 7 And another said : " The Israelite* 3 
became weary of yielding the fruits of their labor to 
pamper the splendor of tyrants. They left their politi- 
cal woes. They separated. Where is our Moses ? " 
Such were the expressions of the Gardners, Osgoods, 
and Parishes, of those days, and indicate what might 



126 A HISTORY OF 

have been the pulpit at large. In these days it is only 
the political sermons of our Cheevei. '.- Beechers, and 
Parkers, that find their way into print ;• but other divines, 
though inferior in ability, are by no means inferior in 
zeal. 

Notwithstanding the discouraging commencement of 
the war, and the unfavorable condition of things for its 
successful prosecution, it was conducted with brilliant 
and useful results, and terminated by an honorable peace 
on the twenty-fourth December, 1814. Before this 
peace was concluded, Napoleon Bonaparte had fallen, 
and England became at peace with all the world but the 
United States ; and, when the treaty was signed, some 
of her veterans were on their way, under Packenham, to 
immortalize Jackson and his brave soldiers, who en- 
countered them at New Orleans on the eighth of January, 
1815, and before, of course, the news of the peace had 
reached America. But, notwithstanding England had 
become disencumbered from European contests, and 
was in a situation to give the United States her undi- 
vided attention, she was not disposed to protract the 
struggle with this country. The eclat with which she 
had terminated her contest with France enabled her, 
without a sacrifice of credit, to treat favorably with us, 
and her condition and true interests required that her 
controversy with the United States should cease. She 
was monstrously in debt ; the close to her of the Amer- 
ican market was more destructive to her people than 
sword or cannon ; and the longer the contest continued, 
the better prepared the United States became for the 
war, and more destructive and ruinous it became to 
England. For the. little time it continued results really 
astonishing were produced. That little navy, first organ 



THE WHIG PARTY. 127 

ized in 1798 by John Adams, under tlie fiercest opposition 
of Jeffersonian republicanism, and afterwards all but 
annihilated by Jefferson, during his administration, was, 
as a necessity of this war, resuscitated, not by Madi- 
son, but by such spirits as Cheeves, Lowndes, Calhoun, 
Crawford, Clay, Lloyd, and Quincy ; and in two short 
years, by the unparalleled success of its encounters with 
the British navy, electrified all Europe. The check for 
the growing monster of the Isles was discovered. Eng- 
land was no longer the undisputed mistress of the ocean. 
The names of Lawrence, Decatur, Bainbridge, Perry, 
McDonough, and others equally brave, were born with 
the war of 1812, and will forever adorn the American 
annals. The commanders and sailors had been bred in 
that merchant service whose wrongs they were proud to 
avenge; and, since that war, our commerce has not been 
molested, nor have American seamen been impressed 
or insulted by the domineering mistress of the ocean. 
From being the degraded, insulted and despised nation 
of herb-raising Chinese, "striving for a commerce 
that she could not protect," and " vaunting an honor 
she could not maintain," America at once took her stand 
before the world as a power of first-rate magnitude ; 
and her importance in the events of coming time was at 
once recognized. Upon the ocean she had not always 
been triumphant, but had always achieved renown. 
Her defeats were glorious. The captives and slain of the 
fatal Chesapeake were wept by the enemy on English 
soil. But England was amazed, and the world aston- 
ished, at the brilliant exploits of our young navy, when 
it frequently gained victories over superior power and 
discipline. The haughty presumption of British com- 
manders was at once checked ; and, from being the most 
12 



128 A HISTORY OF 

arrogant and insolent of mortals, they became prudent 
and respectful. At the opening of the war, but little 
regard was paid to the presence of an American vessel- 
of-war ; but soon the feeling was changed, and a chal- 
lenge would not produce an encounter even where the 
advantage was on the British side. One day, England 
and France were trampling America under their feet, 
rendering her an object of pity and contempt to the 
world ; and the next, she was an object of dread to her 
enemies, and of admiration to the nations of Europe. Mr. 
Crawford was in Paris, as minister, at the abdication of 
Napoleon, when the allied powers entered that city. 
The respect paid to the stars and stripes that waved 
over his quarters, by the various representatives of the 
different powers of Europe, was said to have been a 
matter of great satisfaction to that able and patriotic 
gentleman ; and everywhere, as the American minister, 
he was treated with marked consideration. 



THE WHIG PAKTY. 129 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

THE FEDERAL PARTY ANNIHILATED, BUT THE MEASURES OF THE ANCIENT 

FEDERALISTS REVIVED. THE NAVY, THE BANK, AND THE TARIFF. 

POLITICS HERETOFORE HAD BEEN BASED ON THE FOREIGN POLICY OF 
THE COUNTRY ; AFTER THE WAR, TURNED MORE ON DOMESTIC POLI- 
CY. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

It is with nations as it is with men ; their prosperity 
is oftentimes more the result of fortune than the achieve- 
ment of wisdom. We have but to cast our eyes over 
the history of any state to discover how slightly its des- 
tiny has been shaped by human intelligence. The 
prominent interests of America, as well as of England, 
have struggled into existence without the cherishing 
hand of a fostering government. It is true, these inter- 
ests, in some instances, have been in a measure protected 
and encouraged, after their prominence rendered their 
continuance indispensable ; but in the germ they re- 
ceived no sunshine-smiles of favor to promote their 
growth. "With how little wisdom this world is gov- 
erned !" was an observation of Chancellor Oxenstiern, 
and its truth is humiliating. At every great political 
event we are reminded of the saying, "Man proposes, 
God disposes;" and how near-sighted do man's views 
and calculations always turn out in contrast with the 
results of Providence ! The American Eevolution was 
commenced to resist the levy of an illegal tax, with nc 
object, but to avoid that levy, in view ; but the estab 
lishment of a new nation upon the earth was the result. 



130 A HISTORY OP 

The war of 1312 was undertaken to emancipate our 
commerce from thp shackles of British assumption, and 
resulted in an entire change of the internal and external 
policy of our country. It was truly said to be our 
" second war of independence ; " and, as the Revolution 
was more like the struggle of a birth than of a war, the 
war of 1812 followed as the natural effort attending such 
natural phenomena. The mother country did not recover 
from the first labor until after the close of the latter. 

The war of 1812 was the crisis in the politics of the 
United States. It was the extermination of the latter- 
day Federal party, but the inauguration of the ancient 
Federal politics. As the Federal party became extinct, 
original Federal ideas revived. Up to this time parties 
had been divided principally on questions of foreign 
policy. Questions of internal policy had been dormant 
until the passions that originally gave them solution 
were extinct ; so that, when the country was no longer 
embarrassed with views as to external relations, and do- 
mestic measures came uppermost in the minds of poli- 
ticians, they ceased to be considered as very binding 
party tests. The establishment of a national bank, 
under the administration of Washington, as well as of 
a navy, under Adams, had been violently opposed by 
the Republicans of Mr. Jefferson's school ; but the 
necessities of the country, as made apparent by the last 
war with England, taught a new lesson in regard to 
these measures. There was as yet a lingering remnant 
of the old Jeffersonian party arrayed against the bank 
and navy ; but the Republican party, as a general thing, 
had conquered their prejudices in regard to these ques- 
tions. It is true, when the first charter of the United 
States Bank expired, in 1811, it was not renewed, but a 



THE WHIG PARTY. 131 

new charter was granted under the administration of 
Madison in 1816 ; and during the war the navy was 
built up, and has ever continued a living witness of the 
absurdity of Jefferson's anti-commercial gun-boat sys- 
tem. Langdon Cheeves was the chairman on the naval 
committee in the Twelfth Congress, who reported in favor 
of a bill increasing and establishing our navy. Much 
discussion ensued ; but the measure was warmly es- 
poused by the ablest Republicans in the Congress. It 
was advocated by such men as Lowndes, Crawford, and 
Clay, Republicans ; and Quincy and Lloyd of Massa- 
chusetts, Federalists. The old claim that this country 
was not to excel in commerce ; that a powerful navy 
would lead to monarchy, and was inconsistent with 
republican institutions ; that to sustain a navy, capa- 
ble of encountering the monstrous naval establishment 
of England, would incur a charge far superior to all the 
profits that could ever be realized from the commerce it 
could protect ; were urged by the opponents of the bill. 
But these objections were all ably answered by its 
friends, and the policy of establishing and maintaining 
a naval power, sufficient for the exigencies of our coun- 
try, was steadily persevered in through that and all 
future Congresses. The triumph of this measure was 
perhaps the fruit of the war. The statesmen of that 
day were led, by the necessities of tlie case, to see that 
a powerful naval establishment was indispensable to 
this country. Those engaged in commerce feared that 
the charges of sustaining such an institution would fall 
upon them ; and that the agriculturists of the West and 
South, not engaged in commerce, would belessburthened 
with the establishment. But the public men of those days 
were capable of taking more enlarged views of the 
12* 



132 A HISTORY OF 

interests of the country, and they demonstrated that 
whatever tended to protect and benefit one section, was 
beneficial to the whole. If the men and money of the 
North were engaged with their ships in commercial en- 
terprises, it was shown that the West and South were 
the great staple producers and the consumers of foreign 
goods, without whose productions, and consumption of 
imported articles, there could be no commerce. And by 
the same reasoning those in the South and West who 
opposed an expensive navy, on the ground that it was 
to protect the commerce of the North, were taught that 
without that Northern commerce their productions 
would be of no value. 

The war was also peculiarly well calculated to dem- 
onstrate the utility of internal improvements, and of 
domestic manufactures. Early Republicanism had looked 
with dread upon manufacturing interests. The English 
manufacturing cities, with their wretched, half-starved 
operatives, and squalid aspects, were ever appealed to 
as examples of this sort of industry, and measures in- 
tended for the building up of manufacturing interests 
were frowned upon by many. But, from his first en- 
trance into public life, Henry Clay became the unwaver- 
ing advocate of protection to home industry ; and the 
experiences of the last war came in aid of his powerful 
logic upon the question. The tariff of 1816,. immedi- 
ately following the treaty of peace, was the legitimate 
fruit of the war, and a return to the farseeing policy 
of Hamilton. The tariff of 1816 was a tariff for pro- 
tection ; and those who advocated it, did so on the 
ground of protection. At that day, the leading Demo- 
crats, such as Lowndes, Crawford, Calhoun, and Henry 
Clay, were clear and decided in their views of the pro- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 133 

priety of encouraging domestic manufactures, that this 
country might manufacture for its own consumption, 
and be independent of foreign supplies. The policy 
was soundly and auspiciously inaugurated. Massachu- 
setts, and commercial circles in the East, for a long 
time opposed the measure, fearing that such restrictions 
on importations would diminish the profits of commerce, 
which consisted in shipping goods from foreign coun- 
tries, and selling them here. Commerce was a sweet 
that the East had then tasted, while manufacturing was 
but an untried experiment. That, in the protective 
measure of 1816, the South exercised a sounder policy 
for New England, than the latter did for herself, is evi- 
dent enough now ; and that the doctrines of that day 
were conceived in good faith, patriotism, and the true 
principles of political economy, there is not a particle 
of doubt. The agitations of party may for a while cause 
perturbations in a nation's policy ; but eventually this 
country will return to the truly American system 
of 1816. Saving the factious opposition of the Feder- 
alists of the North, and the commercial opposition of 
the same section to the protective system, there was 
nothing selfish, narrow, or sectional, in the Congress of 
1816, and the domestic policy then inaugurated looked 
to the best good of each part, by promoting the best 
good of the whole country. Measures of internal im- 
provement were encouraged by the Democrats of those 
days, and by no one more ably than by John C. Cal- 
houn ; and, although the views of the Democratic party 
have since changed in regard to these, as well as to 
the tariff, the sentiments of early times are fast return- 
ing. But recently a Democratic congress passed inter- 
nal improvement bills by a two-thirds vote over the 



134 A HISTORY OF 

President's veto ; and it is confidently trusted that the 
American system of earty Democracy will yet triumph 
as the settled and firm policy of the country. Until 
that day comes, and until this country so adjusts her 
measures of internal and foreign policy as to secure and 
foster all her great interests, she will be but the colony 
of Europe, and never free from revulsions and commer- 
cial disasters, which must periodically afflict all classes, 
and render industry here subservient to the interests of 
the Old World. When dispassionately viewed, this is 
seen by everybody. The statesmen of 1816 were in a 
favorable point for observation, and this is their recorded 
testimony. That a country of so vast extent, resources, 
and advantages, as this, should, through sectional par- 
tialities, adapt its measures so as to render it but a 
tributary to the riches of England, is unpatriotic and 
ruinous. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 135 



CHAPTER XIV. 

mr. monroe elected in 1816 and 1820. — extinction op party 
spirit. — monroe's cabinet. — republicans support bank, in- 
ternal improvements, tariff, and navy. — measures of mr 
clay. — mr. Crawford's presidential expectations. — henry 
clay's. — j. c. Calhoun's. — Andrew jackson's. — tariff of 

1816 AND 1824. — SOUTHERN JEALOUSIES, ETC. 

The Federal party had staked its fortunes on opposi- 
tion to the war, and was ruined. It is true that party 
had changed much in its leaders, as well as in its meas- 
ures. There were many of the old Federalists whc 
could not concur in the factious opposition of their party 
to the administration, and left it for the Republican 
ranks. Among the most noted of these were Samuel 
Dexter, Oliver Wolcott, and that sterling old revolu- 
tionary patriot, John Adams. At the close of Mr. 
Madison's administration, the Federal party was effect- 
ually silenced — to use a military expression. The presi- 
dential contest of 1816 was attended with scarcely 
any excitement, the Federal party being too small to 
justify any effort. Rufus King was their candidate, and 
received the votes of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
Maryland ;. thirty -four in all. Mr. Madison's Secretary 
of State, James Monroe, was the Republican candidate, 
and received the votes of the other sixteen states, mak- 
ing one hundred and eighty-three. Mr. Monroe was, in 
1820, almost unanimously reelected President, there 



136 A HISTORY OF 

being but one vote cast against him. ' Connecticut 
became Republican in 181T, and, in 1819, Maryland, 
and, in 1823, Massachusetts passed from the hands 
of the Federalists. Among the members of the cabinet 
of Mr. Monroe, were John Quincy Adams, Secretary 
of State ; William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treas- 
ury ; George Graham, of Virginia, Secretary of War ; 
and William Wirt, Attorney General. 

Congress, during Mr. Monroe's administration, was 
not entirely harmonious upon all questions, nor were 
the members unanimous in the support of the President. 
The New England members were more uniformly and 
constantly his supporters than those from any other sec- 
tion, and on some measures the opposition to the 
President's views was in the ascendency in Congress. 
The conflicts and contentions between members were 
conducted with no design of embarrassing Mr. Monroe's 
administration ; they were either honest differences of 
opinion as to public measures, or efforts made to influ- 
ence the succession. The idea that the Federal had 
become entirely absorbed into the Republican party, 
and that but one universal party was to rule the coun- 
try, was not entertained by all the politicians of those 
days. The Federal party was overthrown ; but there 
were scattered throughout the land a large number of 
Federalists. Of course they had no expectations of 
electing a successor to Mr. Monroe. But the leaders 
of the Republican party were divided on many meas- 
ures. There was a tendency, on the side of the more 
radical part of the Democracy, to recede from the liberal 
policy which had sprung up after the last war. Conse- 
quently, during Mr. Monroe's administration, were 
thoroughly discussed the questions of Bank, Tariff, 



THE WHIG PARTY. 137 

Navy, and Internal Improvements ; and, as a whole, 
these measures were embraced by the leading Repub- 
licans. All have read the speeches of Henry Clay, and 
some of the most able of them were made, at this period, 
on the tariff and internal improvement measures. On 
the last named measure Mr. Clay, although the ablest 
Republican in the country, encountered the views of the 
President with all his ability. Mr. Monroe in his mes- 
sage to Congress took occasion to distinctly lay down 
his opinions as to the constitutional power of the gen- 
eral government to prosecute works of internal improve- 
ment. The state-rights notions of Jefferson and Mad- 
ison had been against such a power, and Mr. Monroe 
announced his opinion that Congress had it not ; but 
he regarded such measures of such vast consequence 
to the country, that he recommended that steps should 
be taken for the amendment of the Constitution, giving 
the general government the requisite power. 

We have seen that the United States Bank was char- 
tered by the Republican administration. Mr. Crawford 
had been its champion from the start, and his argument 
in its favor was what first gave him a national reputa- 
tion as an able statesman. At first, Mr. Clay had 
doubted the constitutionality of a United States Bank ; 
but, after the powerful exposition of the question by Mr. 
Crawford, not only Mr. Clay, but many other Democrats, 
yielded their doubts, and were afterwards supporters of 
the measure. Mr. Crawford was an able and influential 
man, and was the competitor of Mr. Monroe for the 
nomination for the presidency in 1816, and in the con- 
gressional caucus received a respectable share of the 
votes. His standing had not become impaired at the 
12* 



138 A HISTORY OF 

close of Mr. Monroe's administration. He was one of 
the contestants for the succession. 

According to the practice of those days we are to 
understand that Mr. Monroe, by appointing John Q. 
Adams Secretary of State preferred him for a succes- 
sor to the presidency ; and Mr. Adams was the prefer- 
ence of New England. Mr. Adams was a Republican, 
as had also been his celebrated father since the adminis- 
tration of Jefferson. 

Henry Clay had made a strong impression in the 
country, and Kentucky, and other Western States, re- 
garded him as a promising candidate for the presidency. 
He had been a prominent leader of the Republican party 
for some years, and was unexcelled, for talents and 
patriotism, by any of its members. His voice had been 
heard, during Mr. Monroe's administration, in favor of 
South American and Grecian liberty, in tones that 
thrilled with enthusiasm the hearts of his countrymen ; 
and no one had said or done more, to carry through the 
late war with England, and to establish a system of 
national policy which should render the country pros- 
perous and independent, than he. 

John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, was also put for- 
ward by his state for the succession. Mr. Calhoun, by 
his war report in the Congress of 1811 and '12, and his 
speeches supporting the war, the navy, the tariff, and 
internal improvements, had characterized himself as 
an able statesman, and an ardent patriot. South Caro- 
lina, also, put forward Mr. Lowndes for a nomination. 
Mr. Lowndes was justly prized as a ■ statesman and 
patriot ; but his decease soon ensued. 

Tennessee offered for the course Andrew Jackson, 
a lawyer and captain j the last man of all mentioned in 



THE WHIG PARTY. 139 

connection with the office whom a statesman would have 
selected ; and still he possessed elements of greatness 
for the cabinet as well as for the field of battle. General 
Jackson had been frequently promoted to high civil 
offices, such as United States senator, and judge of a 
high court of justice, and declined to retain the places, 
on the account, as always supposed, of inexperience 
and want of fitness for such employments. " His dear- 
est action," many thought, "had been in the tented 
field." His victory at New Orleans, however, had in- 
vested him with a charm, in the eyes of the people, that 
rendered his aspirations, as the result showed, anything 
but contemptible. 

All of these aspirants (and they were all Democrats) 
had their friends and supporters in Congress, and doubt- 
less much of the debate, as at the present day, was 
intended for the eye of the people, rather than to pro- 
mote the measures under discussion. Even the conduct 
of Jackson in the Spanish province of Florida was dis- 
cussed. The British, it was said, had sent emissaries 
there to incite the Indians to acts of hostility against 
the Americans. The general was quite arbitrary in his 
procedure in the premises. He entered Pensacola, 
where he soon brought the hostile Indians to peace, 
and rather unceremoniously, so they said, executed a 
couple of British soldiers that somehow or other fell 
into his hands. A resolution to censure Jackson was 
introduced into the House, and warmly supported by 
Mr. Clay ; which fact should not be forgotten in connec- 
tion with the subsequent conduct of that statesman. 
Also the Florida treaty, the Texas cession, fortifica- 
tions, &c, were before Congress; and, prior to the 
close of Mr. Monroe's term of office, the tariff of 1824 
13 



140 A HISTORY OF 

was passed. The tariff of 1816 had been found defi- 
cient for the purposes for which it had been intended, 
and, after a thorough discussion, the tariff of 1824 was 
enacted. The tariff of 1816 had failed to effect what 
the act of 1824 accomplished immediately. It was not 
merely a revenue act, but a tariff strongly protective, 
and its good effects were at once witnessed in all parts 
of the country. The curious reader of politics will 
turn, with some wonder, and read the names of those 
whose votes stand recorded for and against that act. 
It was a thoroughly Democratic measure, of course, as 
Congress at the time had scarcely more than a baker's 
dozen of Federalists in it. But already had sectional 
interests begun to show themselves in Congress, and 
soon national policy had to make way for that of a sec- 
tion. There had been in the North the fiercest, long 
continued, and most bitter denunciations of the South, 
her people and institutions. The better part of the North- 
ern people, of course, did not join in this sectional cru- 
sade ; but the existence in the North of an active and 
bitter sectional spirit aroused the vigilance of Southern 
politicians, and at an early day inspired them with ap- 
prehensions for the future. The South had not orig- 
inally been jealous of the North. Virginia bestowed 
on the Union an empire of territory, and voluntarily 
consecrated it to freedom The Union itself was a 
divine emanation from the heart of Virginia patriots ; 
and on the ascendency of Jefferson and Madison, the 
general government, cordially supported by the whole 
South, engaged in a war with England to redress the 
wrongs and vindicate the rights of Northern seamen. It 
would indeed be hard, during the early days of the re- 
public, to find an instance where the South, as such, 



THE WHIG PARTY. 141 

desired, or sought an occasion to trample on the rights 
of the North, or were the offenders in a sectional con- 
troversy. But in the North, unfortunately, there had 
been rabid haters of the South, and radical disunionists, — 
those who made no secret of an aggressive spirit 
towards Southern institutions, — and it was not strange 
that, witnessing the intemperance of these, the South 
should in time become aroused to a defence of her 
peculiar interests. 



142 A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER XT. 

ENGLISH POLICY AND PROSPERITY. NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. — BRIT- 
AIN DEPENDENT ON AMERICA FOR THE RAW MATERIAL FOR HER 
MANUFACTURES, WITHOUT WHICH HER COMMERCE COULD NOT EXIST. — 

THIS DEPENDENCE FORCED THE PEACE OF 1814. HER EFFORTS TO 

RELIEVE HERSELF. HER INDIAN COLONIES CANNOT COMPETE WITH 

SLAVE LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES. HER ATTEMPTS TO OVER 

THROW SLAVERY. SLAVE-TRADE AND ANTI-SLAVERY. EFFECT OF 

HER AKTI-SLAVERY CRUSADE IN THE UNITED STATES. MISSOURI CON- 
TROVERSY. ANTI-SLAVERY FEELING IN NEW ENGLAND ARTIFICIAL.— 

SLAVERY A NECESSITY TO THE SOUTH. THE NEGRO. NEGRO SERVI- 
TUDE AN INSTRUMENTALITY IN THE HANDS OF PROVIDENCE FOR THE 

CIVILIZATION OF THE WORLD. EFFECT OF SERVITUDE UPON THE 

NEGRO. — RIGHT OF CONGRESS TO EXCLUDE A NEW STATE ON ACCOUNT 
OF ITS TOLERATING SLAVERY, ETC. 

England has been taught her policy by experience. 
It is not to be disputed but that occasionally she has 
had statesmen capable, by original measures, of devel- 
oping her interests ; but, generally, the commanding 
importance of her interests has controlled the govern- 
ment, and sometimes in spite of itself. Her prime inter- 
ests, in former years, were not always readily taken 
into protection by the reigning power. It was a long 
while before the feudal lord could busy himself in 
studying the interests of the merchant and mechanic. 
But the revolutions of later periods have changed the 
spirit of the British government. She is now eminently 
a trading nation — a nation of merchants and mechan- 
ics. To promote her trade and manufactures is now 



,THE WHIG PARTY. 143 

one of the first objects of her policy. For this she 
maintains a large navy, establishes colonies in all parts 
of the world, and sustains a trafficking friendship with 
every nation on the earth. The East Indies, embracing 
quite a share of the inhabitants of the earth, are re- 
duced to her power, purely for the purposes of trade ; 
and the globe is dotted , over with her colonies, which 
consume her fabrics, and give employment to her mer- 
chant-ships. Her manufactures are not only used by 
her colonies ; they are also demanded by the whole 
world, millions on millions of them being annually im- 
ported into the United States. Strip England of her 
manufactories and of her commerce, and her power 
and importance would at once disappear. The products 
of her manufactories, in which millions of her people are 
employed, are enormous. These manufactories are in- 
dispensable to her commerce, without which her colonial 
system, and her whole commercial prosperity, would 
fall into ruin. Her mechanics must have employment, 
or the twenty odd millions of people in those small isles 
would be obliged to devour each other for subsistence. 
The fabrics manufactured must have a market ; and if 
necessary, in order to force them into China or India, to 
sacrifice a few thousand soldiers, and a few millions of 
dollars, the offering is always readily and cheerfully put 
forth. Her goods are forced into some countries by 
war, into some by fear, and some are induced to take 
them by bribery. Her arms are ever ready to place a 
crown upon the head of a free-trade king in India, and 
her money to elect a free-trade president in America. 
The great cardinal principle of modern British policy is 
to keep her manufactories in employ, and to keep the 
world abroad an open market for her fabrics. 
13* 



144 A HISTOKY OF 

The works of Providence are inscrutable. We see 
enough to arouse our curiosity and admiration ; but 
when we think her benign designs in our special behalf 
are clearly manifest, we are apt almost always suddenly, 
on having our eyes opened by some unexpected devel- 
opment, to find ourselves wonderfully deceived. Na- 
tions as well as men are in the hands of God, and if, by 
His disposal of events, mortals are disappointed, it is 
undoubtedly because He consults His own, and not the 
counsels of men. No nation owns Him : He is the 
special favorite and patron of no race, or body of human 
beings. The earth is allotted to man. The nations 
should form a family, as well as individuals. This could 
never be, if it were in the power of one to monopolize 
all the resources of the earth. Perfect independence in 
nations should no more be expected than in individuals. 
Mutual dependence, as well in nations as in individual 
men, is a law of nature, which it can never be wisdom 
to endeavor to wholly overcome. How far nations or 
men should strive for independence is a question left for 
the solution of human wisdom ; and, as mortals are blind 
and erring creatures, passionate, selfish, bigoted and 
conceited, they cannot be expected to always judge 
modestly, moderately, and correctly, on such a question. 
There may be some pleasure in the excited hopes of 
selfishness and of self-importance ; but, after all, probably 
our happiness much depends on the true solution of 
this very question. Certainly a correct decision of it 
would save individuals much strife and mortification ; 
and save nations angry altercations and war. 

At an early period of the independent existence of 
the United States, Great Britain made a discovery 
which has since powerfully affected her foreign policy. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 145 

She found that America held her by a powerful bond. 
Yes, her manufactories, her fleets and commerce, were 
all dependent on the cotton plantations of the United 
States. While at war with us, her plunder from our 
commerce, and from that of other nations, for a while in 
a measure compensated for the distress occasioned by 
loss of American trade, and the raw material thereby 
drawn from this country ; but, in a state of peace, Brit- 
ish prosperity was found dependent on commerce with 
the United States. She manufactured for the whole 
world ; but, unawares, she discovered that the raw mate- 
rial for her fabrics was the product of this country. 
The discovery evidently startled and distressed our 
venerable mother. From that day to the present she 
has resorted to every effort, and tried every expedient 
imaginable, to relieve herself from absolute dependence 
on America for cotton ; but destiny seems to chain her 
as by an unalterable flat to our control. Throughout 
all her expedients and resorts to emancipate herself 
from dependence on us for the raw material of her man- 
ufactures, she has been obliged to maintain towards us 
an affable, plausible, truck-and-dicker friendship. She 
would gladly have given the production of cotton to 
Hindoos, Hottentots, or Turks, at the expense of the 
United States ; but still, as the richest of all her foreign 
markets for her goods was with easy, green, and unsus- 
pecting Brother Jonathan, she ever greeted him with 
affected cordiality and studied politeness. She has, or 
rather, if we take her personified as Johnny Bull, he 
has smiled and stabbed, and smiled and stabbed again ; 
but impotence has rendered his dagger harmless, as 
yet. 

William Pitt the younger was her first great states- 



146 A HISTORY OP 

man that saw the secret of our superiority in the pro- 
duction of cotton. Though a liberal statesman, Fox 
could not resist the policy of Pitt, and finally embraced 
it. It was seen and felt that, with slavery, the United 
States must ever monopolize the production of that 
material. What should the statesmen of the British 
Isles do to crush this odious monopoly, that so power- 
fully bound British interests to the pleasure of the 
United States ? A hasty glance of those statesmen 
satisfied them that the way to effect their object was to 
overthrow the slave-trade and slavery. The slave-trade 
had continued from an early period of the settlement of 
America, and during its continuance many millions of 
slaves had been imported from Africa to the West In- 
dies, and the Spanish, French, and English colonies of 
America. England saw that cotton could be produced 
in her East Indian possessions, but not in competition 
with slave labor in the United States. To destroy this 
inequality, and to give her cheap Hindoo labor the 
advantage, slavery in the United States must be 
extinguished. To effect this it was considered sufficient 
to overthrow the slave-trade. The importation of 
slaves had never ceased, and the supply seemed never 
to exceed the demand. Without this supply — without 
this trade — it was concluded by Britain that slavery 
itself would soon expire in the United States. . 

Impressed with these views, the statesmen of Great 
Britain commenced a fierce war upon the slave-trade, 
and, as the interests of many of her people were much 
involved in the question, it was not abolished at once. 
The touching exertions and appeals of Wilberforce and 
Clarkson, and a host of other speakers and writers, had 
a powerful effect in Old and New England ; but the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 147 

measure was not carried until 1808. In 1808, also, the 
United States, less intent on material interests than on 
ideas of humanity, prohibited the importation of slaves. 
Britain was visibly and sensibly affected at this act of 
her unpromising son ; and she could not endure to be 
only equal to him in efforts in the cause of freedom. 
The act, however, by which Great Britain prohibited 
her subjects from engaging in the slave-trade after 1808, 
was passed in 1801. The debates in Parliament at the 
time would disclose to any but the senses of a Jonathan 
the expectations of the British statesmen in regard to the 
abolishing of the slave-trade. It was stated in those de- 
bates that England had in her West Indian possessions 
upwards of four hundred thousand slaves, and it was esti- 
mated that to keep that number good an importation often 
thousand annually would be requisite. By cutting off the 
supply entirely, it was regarded as certain that slavery 
itself would in a short time cease. The reasoning in re- 
gard to the United States, though of course not expressed, 
was based, upon the same data. 

But, to cut off the trade so as to entirely deprive the 
United States of the supply sufficient to keep up her 
necessary slave force, it was apparent that more gov- 
ernments than Great Britain and the United States should 
renounce the trade, and enter into a league against it. 
The necessities of the United States would hardly resist 
temptation if other nations should continue to bring to 
her ports servants so indispensable to her. Here 
Britain's disinterested humanity and practical love of 
freedom were singularly manifested. She complimented 
the humanity of her son Jonathan, and especially 
praised all the Jonathans that had manifested a proper 
and becoming abhorrence of slavery, and then ad- 



148 A HISTORY OF 

dressed herself to the other powers practising the hate- 
ful traffic. Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, 
Spain, Portugal, and other states engaged in the slave- 
trade were importuned, and finally with success, to give 
it up. None of the powers applied to were readily 
willing to concur with England in her work of humanity. 
Denmark prohibited her subjects from carrying slaves 
after 1804. Louis the Eighteenth promised the British 
minister, Castlereagh, in 1814, that France should aban- 
don the trade ; but she continued it afterwards. At 
the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, Castlereagh pressed the 
subject ; but all he could obtain was a promise from 
Spain and Portugal to give up the slave-trade north of 
the line. It is easily perceived that it was something 
accomplished by England, in her work, to prohibit the 
slave-trade north of the equator ; but this did not sat- 
isfy the humane feelings of the great champion of human 
rights of modern times. Spain and Portugal were, with 
the exception of France, the greatest dealers in slaves. 
As for France, Louis the Eighteenth owed his crown 
to British bayonets, and readily accommodated his 
benefactress in her work of love. But as for Spain and 
Portugal, their hearts had not yet been opened. They 
were still blinded by the passion for gain ; and minister- 
ing England, like a true angel of mercy, opened their 
eyes by the application of handsome bonuses. To Por- 
tugal she promised about a million and a half of dollars, 
and to Spain she gave about two millions of dollars, ass 
indemnification for giving up a line of business which 
she thus had all at once come to view as unjust and 
horrible". A more active humanity than that for several 
years manifested by our worthy and respected mother 
has rarely been witnessed in nations. These extraor- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 149 

dinary exertions for abolishing the slave-trade were 
made immediately after her last war with the United 
States. But it was soon found that but little progress 
was made in the ruin of American slavery. The im- 
portation of slaves into South America and the West 
Indies, and consequently to some extent into the United 
States, still continued. Moreover, the anti-slavery re- 
form, originating in England, crossed the Atlantic, and 
was exceedingly popular in America. Emancipation 
societies sprung up through the land, many of the 
Northern States having got rid of their slaves, and passed 
laws against the institution ; and some of those now 
reckoned as Southern States were on the point of abol- 
ishing their slavery. In America there was nothing 
pecuniary or selfish in the movement. By the atten- 
tion the subject received, the condition of the African 
underwent an entire change, — a change pregnant with 
the most important consequences. The comfort, hap- 
piness, and morals, of the slave were provided for and 
secured. His treatment was more humane. His security 
from abuse was not only preserved by laws, but also 
guarded by a wholesome public feeling. American 
slavery at once assumed a new character, and the 
African became, under his American master, a new 
being. In all this the master's humanity was amply 
rewarded. In proportion as the negro was rendered 
comfortable and nappy he became prolific. As an 
American-born and an American-raised negro is 
superior for service to -one brought from the savage 
wilds of Dahomey, the United States had a better sup- 
ply for slaves than could be afforded by the slave-trade. 
It is a pity that the humane movements of the earlier 
period of our history could not have continued undis- 



150 A HISTORY OF 

turbed by sectional hostility ; but, unfortunately, the 
zeal of Northern reformers outran their wisdom. Their 
incendiary missions among the slaves soon called for 
severe legislation on the part of slave states, as self-pro- 
tection from the consequences of Northern fanaticism. 
Laws against teaching negroes to read and write were 
demanded as a defence against the incendiary teaching 
of ultra Northern reformers, who were not content with 
improving the condition of the servant, but must teach 
him rebellion and murder. It is pleasant to know that 
many of the severe laws, called into existence by 
Northern fanaticism, are regarded as only defensive 
enactments, and never enforced saving in extreme cases. 
While England and the United States were thus 
warmly engaged in righting the manifold wrongs of the 
slave, an event occurred that shook the Union to the 
centre, and came near rending it in twain. In the Con- 
gress of 1818 and '19, Missouri, a portion of the 
Louisiana purchase, applied for admission into the Union. 
The House of Representatives opposed her admission 
with slavery, and passed a bill admitting her on condi- 
tion that slavery should cease on a specified future day. 
The Senate refused to concur with the House, and the 
question went over to the next Congress. The whole 
North was arrayed against the admission of Missouri 
with slavery. They claimed that Congress had power 
.to prohibit the existence of slavery in any new state. 
The South denied this, and claimed that, by the Con- 
stitution, Congress had no such power. During the 
recess of Congress, presses, orators, wandering lecturers, 
pulpits, and legislatures, were in a blaze of excitement. 
There was too much frenzy to allow reason or justice to 
have great weight in the controversy. The question 



THE WHIxx PARTY. 151 

involved in that dispute has been agitated till the pres- 
ent day ; but passion on both sides has been so 
strongly enlisted that no satisfactory decision could be 
arrived at. There is undoubtedly a right side to the 
question, and all should strive to find it out ; but the 
truth can never be seen through the mists of passion. 
Any fact, any statement, against our prejudices, or pre- 
possessions, is at once indignantly rejected, 'and we 
only receive such impressions as harmonize with our 
feelings. But in matters of state, and especially in a 
free government like ours, where it is Our duty not only 
to obtain our oWn, but likewise to concede to others 
their rights, we should strive to be dispassionate, and 
to look at things in their true light. 

There are, in the popular mind, many false ideas with 
regard to slavery, the most of which are borrowed from 
England. For instance, that slavery is the creature of 
local law is fallacious. Slavery has been universal, and 
for all time. No colony or state ever established slavery 
by legislative enactments. Slave property, like all 
other property, has from time to time been regulated by 
local and national legislatures, but nowhere has owed 
its existence to such powers. It has ever been treated 
as a personal right. The early settlers of Massachu- 
setts enslaved Indians in numerous instances ; the noble 
Winthrop named Indians among his bequests ; and in 
their public acts that colony recognized the propriety of 
Indian slavery. But this subjection of Indians to servi- 
tude was not authorized by any local law ; it was 
exercised as a natural right. That colony held negro 
slaves on the same basis. It is true their Constitution, 
adopted in 1790, virtually abolished slavery, though not 
in express terms. It is competent for a state to prohibit 
14 



152 A HISTORY OF 

a citizen's holding slaves, as it is to prohibit any traffic 
deemed injurious to the public good ; but, without such 
prohibition, slavery would not have terminated quite so 
soon in Massachusetts. The question arose in that 
state after the adoption of her Constitution, and her 
courts pronounced the freedom of the negro as the 
beneficent grant of that instrument. The people of the 
North ar4 so deeply impressed with the force of this 
truth, that they have liberally filled their statute-books 
with enactments against this species of property ; but 
still, deluded by popular sounding phrases, they often 
utter what they little comprehend, and clamor about 
freedom being universal and slavery local. The fact 
is that the converse of this proposition is nearer the 
truth. There is not a state on earth where slavery is 
held unlawful, save by legislative or constitutional 
provisions. 

When the Constitution of the United States was 
adopted, slavery was existing in all the states, and 
was fully recognized by that instrument. Represent- 
ation and taxation were apportioned on the basis 
of a slave population, and provision was made for the 
return of fugitive slaves. At that day negroes were not 
regarded as of great value in the Northern and Middle 
States, nor of so much value in the extreme South as 
they have since become. The discovery by Whitney 
of the cotton-gin, and the subsequent marvellous in- 
crease of cotton cultivation, has given a new importance 
to negro labor, and the necessity of the institution of 
slavery stands now in a different light from that in 
which it stood at the period of the Revolution. 

It is the unquestionable duty of government not only 
to look to what is right and legal, but to take into view 



THE WHIG PARTY. 153 

things as they, actually exist. Reformers never make 
allowance for obstac^S; With them, imagination is at 
the command of the will, and serves as a substitute for 
facts and reason in all cases. But legislators ought to 
be independent of popular prejudices, and should en- 
deavor to arrive at the truth. When this impartial and 
candid vantage ground is attained by the legislator, he 
will find that American slavery is a fact, and a legal 
fact, and shape his measures accordingly. Negro 
slavery is not only a fact, but it is, so far as the negro 
is concerned, a magnificent one. Negro labor cannot 
compete with white free labor in the higher latitudes ; and 
if negroes monopolize Southern fields, they must owe 
their privileges to climate alone. Slavery is not thrifty, 
and the people dependent on it have many disadvan- 
tages to encounter, and look with envy upon their more 
fortunate neighbors who can command a more profitable 
species of labor. But for the Southern planter there is 
no choice. The negro has possession of his fields, and 
must probably occupy them so long as the country shall 
be habitable. It is to be regretted that the South is 
controlled by so hard a necessity ; that she cannot exer- 
cise a choice as to her laborers. Could the Southern 
planters employ free white labor, the South would soon, 
were it to manifest the enterprise peculiar to such 
Saxon energies, resemble Paradise. Could the Southern • 
people avail themselves of free negro labor, their pros- 
pects would be more encouraging ; but slavery is the 
only condition on which it is possible for the American 
people to avail themselves of negro labor. Wherever 
the climate and soil will admit, white free labor will 
exclude black servitude ; but in the Southern savannas 
slavery or desolation must prevail. The statesman who 



154 A HISTORY OF 

makes no allowance for difference in race, in climate, in 
soil and productions, and in manners and customs, is 
not fit to legislate for a large empire. Our legislators 
in 1820 were undoubtedly in many respects contracted 
in their views, and judged of the whole Union as they 
would of a school-district. Too little allowance was 
made by many for the necessities of a recognized and 
permanent institution, and the bitterness of sectionalism 
usurped the place of reason. 

The negro race is one of the instrumentalities with 
which Providence is working out the great problem 
of human destiny. The more reasonable of Nortnern 
abolitionists concede that this race is incapable of civil- 
ization, saving when associated with a higher race ; and 
that, as a general thing, the Africans in the United 
States are incapable of discharging the duties of citi- 
zens. None but bigoted fanatics refuse to recognize the 
negro's inferiority and incapacity for self-government ; 
although England, who was unwilling to acknowledge 
her legitimate children's right of self-government, is now 
ardent in supporting it in Africans ! The history of the 
African negroes is known as much as is that of any 
uncivilized and unlettered people ; slightly known by 
external observation. The interior of Africa has never 
been, and, on account of its extreme barbarism, cannot 
well be explored. In the country of the negroes it is 
estimated that there are some fifty millions of blacks, 
who, for untold centuries, have made no sensible ad- 
vancement in the arts of civilized life. The negro should 
be tried by his native condition. Africa is his home ; the 
place where he was created, where he passed his 
infancy, and has advanced to full age. He was made 
for the climate, and in Africa is in his chosen theatre for 



THE WHIG PARTY. 155 

action. But civilization was not an achievement de- 
signed for the negro as a race ; it is clear enough that 
he was intended as a parasite being, and created for 
connection with, and subserviency to, another race. He 
is patient, laborious, faithful, friendly, and adhesive, and, 7 
when brought into connection with a superior people, 
at once springs into a new and higher existence. He 
has those aptitudes that render him contented and 
happy with a master ; and every capacity with which he 
is blessed marks him as the subordinate and servant of 
a superior race. No person, who has a moderate knowl- 
edge of the world, can be deceived as to the negro's 
natural abilities. His lack of intellectual organs, and 
his peculiar organization, are significant and unquestion- 
able facts, and should never be overlooked or slighted 
by the upright citizen, or the one who would treat the 
negro question with fairness and justice. From ignorant 
bigots and fanatics reason or common sense is not ex- 
pected ; but the intelligent and upright should accustom 
themselves to weigh every important fact before pro- 
nouncing on a question in which the rights of a neigh- 
bor are involved. 

In the great exodus of people from the Old World to 
America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 
Africa, providentially, or accidentally, sent forth her 
millions. This transfer of servants from Africa to 
America was one of the great events of an eventful 
age. Like the art of printing, the mariner's compass, 
gunpowder, and steam, African servitude has been, in 
the hands of Providence, a necessary instrumentality in 
the great progress of human affairs which has eventuated 
in the birth of the freest, happiest, most prosperous, 
and most perfect republic that man has ever enjoyed. 
14* 



156 A HISTORY OP 

If New England's boundaries enclosed our entire repub- 
lic, the sentiments of New England people in regard to 
negro slavery would be more reasonable ; but it should 
be recollected that this republic verges well towards 
the equator. The establishment of this republic all 
acknowledge to have been an era in modern civiliza- 
tion. And what one thing, steam not excepted, has 
done more to promote the arts of peace, and to ad- 
vance in wealth, refinement, and civilization, every race 
upon earth, and especially our Saxon cousins in Eng- 
land, than the cultivation of the cotton-plant in the 
South ? As it was destined that this Union, an instru- 
mentality so divine, should embrace many latitudes, — 
perhaps the whole continent, — it was necessary that 
people adapted to its various physical qualities should 
inhabit it. The rich fields of the South were indispen- 
sable to the world ; but it is clear that they could never 
have been occupied and improved without the conjunc- 
tion, in the relationship now sustained by them, of the 
white and black races. The immense blessings, by the 
union conferred on the black race, are only equalled by 
the benefits conferred on the world by Southern pro- 
ductions ; the white race in the South is less benefited 
by the operation. Every impartial traveller is filled with 
admiration at beholding the negro's improvement in 
every respect.* Everywhere the servants are seen, as 

* There is a class of people who are ever flattering themselves 
by depicting the miseries of others. We have heard poor wretches, 
who never scarcely saw a dollar in their lives, speak with great em- 
phasis of the poor whites in the South ! The wonder is that there 
are any whites there at all. It is no place for them. Nature, for 
their presumption, annually sends her plague to sweep off thou- 
sands. And, as labor is impossible for the Caucassian in a nearlj 



THE WHIG PARTY. 157 

a general thing, well clad, well fed, well used, contented, 
happy, mannerly, orderly, and exceedingly addicted to 
religious exercises. When contrasted with Africa, the 
African settlements in the South resemble Paradise. If 
the relationship between these two races, of master and 
servant, be ordained by Providence, it appears, from 
every indication afforded by the works of nature and 
human experience, that it is designed for only a partic- 
ular climate. The negro and the cotton-plant are per- 
haps inseparable. They were both indigenous to Africa ; 

tropical latitude, why does he venture there ? If he goes there he 
must expect to be poor, as to his race it is the fiat of the climate. 
Of course, there are locations which, from, well-known physical causes, 
form exceptions. But, as to the cotton and sugar countries, it may 
safely be said there is no field for white labor, and the white laborer 
should keep away. There is but one condition on which it is possible 
for the white man to cultivate the cotton fields of the South, and that 
is by the use of negro slaves. If he has not the means of purchas- 
ing them, he had better seek other parts of the country. To a limited 
extent white labor is honorably and profitably employed in the ex- 
treme South ; but the mass of labor is, and ever must be, performed 
by the blacks. Georgia, in 1735, or thereabouts, was settled by the 
Moravians, an exemplary class of Protestant religionists from Ger- 
many. They were highly anti-slavery in their feelings, and would 
not allow the slave-trade to be opened amongst them. In this they 
were in advance of their Puritan brethren in New England who had 
largely participated in that trade and its fruits ; but the Moravians 
were exceedingly bitter against the institution. But a short time 
induced other sentiments. Slavery was soon found to be a necessity, 
— indispensable, — and, on applying to their spiritual guides in the' 
homeland, they were told that they could without sin make use of 
slaves, provided they would use them well. But the example of the 
Moravians will have no weight with a bigoted Northern or British 
abolitionist ; nor would the example, experience, or testimony, of the 
most worthy and pious of New England men who have had occasion to 
dwell in the South, and perceive the necessities of negro servitude for 
that clime. 



158 A HISTORY OF 

the latter to the South. The servitude of the negro is 
peculiar. From the nature of his organization his ser- 
vices can only be valuable in a clime resembling that of 
his origin, and a more temperate latitude should never 
be burthened and cursed with his incumbrance. Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, have for a long while 
excluded, by their repulsive black servitude, energies 
that would have rendered * those states vastly wealthy 
and powerful. Instead of quarrelling about abstract 
and impracticable ideas, the statesman should view 
things, and act in reference to them, as they are. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the United States gov- 
ernment has always possessed a large 'quantity of ter- 
ritory. The constitutional power of Congress to govern 
the territories as it pleases has always been claimed. 
It would be no more than reasonable to allow that Con- 
gress can make binding laws for the control of its 
territories ; still, many claim that the settlers in the 
territories are sovereigns, and have a right to adopt 
their own institutions. But as to states made from 
these territories another question arises. The Constitu- 
tion permits the admission of new states on terms of 
equality with the original ones and on no other terms. 
Therefore, when admitted, the new states may be as 
independent as the old ones, and adopt just such insti- 
tutions, provided they be republican, as they may prefer. 
On the application of Missouri for admission, the North 
said to her that she should not come into the Union 
unless she should do so under a pledge to become a free 
state. This was a fetter not attached to any other state 
in the Union, and could not constitutionally have been 
bound to Missouri. The South were indignant, and well 
might have been, for the reasons here advanced. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 159 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SPREAD OF ANTI-SLAVERY VIEWS IN THE NORTH. — INFLUENCE OF 

ENGLAND. WHEN MADE A PARTY QUESTION THE SLAVERY ISSUES 

MUST NECESSARILY RENDER PARTIES SECTIONAL. CLAIM OF ANTI- 
SLAVERY MEN. ABSURDITY OF THE FEAR OF THE EXTENSION OF 

SLAVERY INTO NEW TERRITORIES. — CANNOT COMPETE WITH WHITE 

LABOR, SAVING UNDER THE PROTECTION OF A SOUTHERN SUN. 

EXCLUSION OF SLAVES FROM TERRITORIES ADAPTED TO THEIR LABOR 

CRUELTY TO THEM. WHITE LABOR WILL IN TIME ASSUME ITS OWN 

DOMAINS, INCLUDING VIRGINIA, KENTUCKY, AND MISSOURI. — SLA- 
VERY LIMITED TO ITS LEGITIMATE THEATRE. HYPOCRISY OF ENG- 
LAND. HER SELFISH PURPOSES AND CRAFTY POLICY. . ANTI-SLAVERY 

MISREPRESENTATIONS PUBLISHED IN AMERICA BY BRITISH GOLD. 

THE ABOMINABLE WICKEDNESS OF SUCH FALSE REPRESENTATIONS. 

FALSE VIEWS OF NEGROES INCULCATED. SLAVEHOLDERS TRADUCED, 

ETC. 

The application for admission into the Union by Mis- 
souri aroused into action the gradually increasing anti- 
slavery feeling of the North. The rights or wrongs of 
the question, as tried by principles of constitutional 
law, had not been considered ; but the moral wrong of 
slavery in the abstract had been largely discussed in 
the forum of conscience, and there was scarcely a man 
in the country not ready, guided solely by his senti- 
ments, to act decisively in the matter. Questions of 
constitutional law, in connection with slavery, have since 
been canvassed by the people, and a somewhat sounder 
doctrine attained by the more intelligent and conserva- 
tive portion of the community. Although there have 
always been multitudes opposed to the admission of 
any more slave states, the more intelligent, reasonable, 



160 A HISTORY OP 

and just portion of the Northern people have been dis- 
posed to recognize the right of the states to be admitted 
to act their own pleasure in the adoption of their do- 
mestic institutions. 

As the anti-slavery party of the North, which imbibed 
its sentiments from the anti-slavery societies of Eng- 
land and America, has, for the last few years, received 
a rapid growth, and is threatening a commanding posi- 
tion in the councils of the nation, the wisdom and jus- 
tice of its principles ought to be examined and weighed 
by that portion of the American people Capable of dis- 
passionate judgment. The pretensions of this party are 
extremely assuming, as it arrogates to itself religion, 
humanity, and virtue. In its political warfare it so 
much resembles the old crusades, that its object seems 
to be rather a battle for religious faith, than a contest 
for political rights. And then, again, its leading spirits 
appear too contemptuous and defiant for sincere Chris- 
tians, and their demeanor and exhibitions of temper 
anything but saint-like. However, as the literature of 
Old and New England has for years breathed a hatred 
for slavery, which has had its effects upon millions of 
Americans, the anti-slavery champions, though wolves 
in sheep's clothing, are loved and adored "for their 
cause.' 7 Gullibility is an attribute, or quality, of a 
goodly number of the humftn-family, and no portion is 
easier duped than that which professes superior sanc- 
tity, benevolence, and humanity. 

That a political party based on the question of slavery 
could exist in this country, would seem strange to an 
indifferent and intelligent spectator. To be effectual, it 
must subvert the Constitution. Such a party is essen- 
tially hostile to our government. Many of the more 



THE WHIG PARTY. 161 

intelligent and daring, and probably more honest, of the 
anti-slavery party, openly proclaim their object to be 
the overthrow of the Constitution. The pretence that a 
political party, based on slavery ideas, can wish to 
accomplish anything short of the object of those ultra- 
ists, is an absurdity. Those who proclaim disunion 
openly are eyed with distant but cautious reserve by 
the other sort of anti-slavery people. These last have 
a mighty work upon their hands, and, in its accomplish- 
ment, enlist a large share of the pious and good. No 
man was ever yet ready to see himself in the light of a 
dupe, nor willing, when the discovery should be made, 
to acknowledge himself such. Conceit is a fatal defect 
in the composition of man, and binds him to error more 
powerfully than any other passion. If men were more 
inclined to question the perfection of their own ideas, — 
were more disposed to distrust the correctness of their 
conclusions, and the propriety of their course of action, — 
knaves and hypocrites would find less encouragement 
for their craft, and free institutions repose on a firmer 
basis. 

In the nature of things an anti-slavery party must be 
a sectional one, the tendencies of which can be nothing 
but strife and civil war. But let the real tendency of a 
party be what it may, if it make captivating professions, 
it will draw into its bosom the unthinking multitude, 
especially if led by persons of some popularity. Large 
masses of the Northern people have had instilled into 
their minds the idea that they have something to accom- 
plish politically in regard to slavery. They think this 
is to be done, not in subversion of, but under, the Con- 
stitution of the United States. A more dangerous error 
they could not well embrace, and they must eradicate 



102 A HISTORY OF 

it from their hearts, or entail it, with civil war and 
anarchy, upon their posterity. When that Constitution 
was adopted, all that the people could do, with regard 
to slavery, was at an end. Every attempt since made 
by anti-slavery people has resulted against the cause of 
negro humanity, and been in subserviency to the great 
design of England to produce a dismemberment of the 
Union. And what do the great mass of the Northern 
people really and candidly claim in regard to the ques- 
tion ? They say, first, they do not wish to disturb 
slavery in the states where it exists. Secondly, they 
do not think emancipation of the slaves of the South a 
practicable or advisable act, providing the power were 
granted ; that the three millions of ignorant, stupid, 
and indolent negroes would be a nuisance to themselves 
and the country, if set at liberty. But, thirdly, they say, 
their eyes in frenzy rolling, "no further extension of 
slave territory." This is the great party war-cry of the 
present day, as it was of 1820. 

The greatest objection to this cry is that it is sense- 
less. That this country should be divided into two 
great parties on such a proposition — divided in a man- 
ner to endanger its peace and perpetuity — is absolute 
madness. Men of common sense must recognize the 
fact that the negroes increase with rapidity, and that, 
while in servitude at least, this increase will continue. 
From about half a million in H90, their number had in- 
creased to about three millions in 1850 ; nearly doubling 
once in fifteen years. At this rate, in 1865 there will 
be six millions, and in 1880 twelve millions, and twenty- 
five millions in 1900. The fact of their increase cannot 
be avoided, and must bring along with it consequences 
that should be provided for by the statesman. The 



THE WHIG PARTY. 163 

philanthropist should be humane. He must see that 
either now, or at some near future day, unless he be a 
demon, he will demand one of two things, — either the 
emancipation of the slaves in the states where they are, 
and their transportation to Africa, or the provision of 
new territories for their labor. No one would wish, 
fifty years hence, to see millions of negroes in a few 
Southern States doomed to wretchedness and starvation. 
Or, does the philanthropist think that, by confining them 
to a few and fast impoverishing states, the masters will 
soon be compelled to set their negroes free ? But what, 
in such an event, would become of these wretched be- 
ings ? When the white man can no longer make his 
labor profitable, and be able to take care of him, will 
the negro be able, if turned adrift, to take care of him- 
self? If slavery is hateful, and it is desirable that it 
should cease in the states where now existing, is it a 
reasonable, a manly, a Christian, or a humane design to 
seek to confine it in a particular locality until it shall 
expire by the force of starvation ? Suppose we admit, 
with the fanatic, that the white man of the South is of 
no account, and that his destruction, in such a catas- 
trophe, is not to be regarded or regretted ; does such an 
issue of slavery promise anything for the slave ? The 
cotton and sugar plantations of the old states may 
become exhausted and sterile, while in the South-west 
will be rich and untouched tracts of soil capable of sup- 
porting millions of negroes in abundance and comfort ; 
but the Northern philanthropist is ready to forbid its 
devotion to the welfare of those degraded beings. No; 
insane with a single idea, he thinks the increase of 
slave territory is an increase of slaves. This, in one 
sense, is so. As the comfort and happiness of the negro 
15 



164 A HISTORY Otf 

are increased, he increases in numbers. But who can be 
called a philanthropist that would abridge the negro's 
comforts in order to render him less prolific, and extin- 
guish slavery by destroying the race ? And yet, at 
what else is enlightened and philanthropic New England, 
under the guide of Old England, driving? What does 
she mean by her insane cry of no more slave territory ? 
If she means to exclude slavery from territory adapted 
to white labor, she may hush her cry of alarm. White 
labor will in time take care of itself. The negro has no 
protective tariff for his labor, but a skin that will endure 
a tropical sun. 

The Missouri question brought to light the anti-slavery 
feeling of the North, the extent and degree of intensity 
of which took the world by surprise. Its first manifes- 
tation was to strike down the constitutional rights of 
new states. The anti-slavery sentiment has increased 
greatly since 1820 ; but no conservative anti-slavery 
statesman even now disputes the right of new states to 
shape their institutions to suit themselves ; and none 
but factious sectionalists and fanatics take the position, 
occupied by the North at the time of the Missouri con- 
troversy, that the general government should dictate in 
the matter. There are probably vast numbers in the 
North, at the present day, who stand on the ground taken 
in 1820 ; but they are not the intelligent and patriotic 
portion of the Northern people. Subsequent agitations 
have brought the Constitution to view, and its plain 
provisions have had weight with the honest and consid- 
erate ; but as upright, patriotic, and conservative states- 
men are losing their influence with the masses ; as the 
teachings of such men as Washington, Jefferson, Madi- 
son, Adams, Benton, Clay, and Webster, among the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 165 

dead, and of Buchanan, Crittenden, Everett, and Fill- 
more, among the living, are no longer regarded by the 
multitude, who prefer the excited and revolutionary 
doctrines of a new class of politicians who claim to be 
governed by a higher law than constitutions, — no one 
can tell how soon the sectional strife, so long cherished 
by British writers, and promulgated by British gold, 
may ripen into civil war. The position of the North in 
1820 was so clearly in defiance of Southern and state 
rights, that a reaction, especially among the more up- 
right and intelligent of the Northern people, soon ensued. 
This reaction was felt, to a great extent, amongst the 
people. The politicaf leaders of those days were dis- 
posed to be guided by principles of constitutional law, 
and their influence was such that a radical abolitionist 
found for a while but little favor in the land.* 

England watched the course of events in the United 
States with profound interest. She early saw that the 

* While the political leaders, of whom mention is made, comprising 
such men as Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Benton, etc., were upon the 
stage of action, the abolition leaders were greatly depressed by the 
weight of their influence. Hence the feeling of relief, in short, exulta- 
tion, at the decease of those eminent statesmen. We were told that 
the Rev. H. W. Beecher, some few years ago, in a lecture at North- 
field, in this state (Vermont), set forth and inculcated the idea that it 
is fortunate for the country that such great men as Clay and Webster 
have passed away, as their weight and influence with the people had 
a tendency to close the popular mind to the teachings of others, and 
retard the march of useful reformations. The feeling of the reverend 
gentleman is perfectly natural. We have read of the poet who 
regretted the existence of such authors as Shakspeare and Milton, as, 
were it not for the admiration of the people for them, his own pro- 
ductions would be regarded. And people now will applaud in Fan- 
euil Hall what would not have been listened to there twenty years 
*go. 



166 A HISTOEY OF 

solution of the great question of Democracy, in this 
country, was involved in the slavery question. From 
a crushing tyrant, and a relentless oppressor, she 
at once became the champion of negro freedom, and, 
Peter-the-Hermit-like, preached and intrigued for it 
throughout the world. Her leading anti-slavery charac- 
ters have ever held intercourse with American agitators, 
and subscriptions in England have been freely made to 
forward the cause of humanity in the United States. 
Her sincerity has been proved to Americans by her 
voluntary emancipation of her slaves in the West Indies, 
which cost her not much less than a hundred million of 
dollars ; and this country never ^Saw any but motives 
of humanity in the glorious act ! It is true, all see that 
Britain's oppression of her own children at home, where 
a powerful monarchy, and a cold-blooded and crushing 
aristocracy, or nobility, extinguish the last lingering 
hope of freedom and happiness ; and that her merciless 
and despotic subjugation, robbery, and slavery, of scores 
of millions of unoffending East Indians, are not exactly 
consistent with her professions of regard for negro 
liberty ; but the magnanimous American philanthropist 
is never disposed to analyze the motives of an act that 
seems to bear evidence in favor of his own merit, and 
to add to his own and the glory of his hobby. 

The teachings of England, both by precept and ex- 
ample, are now beginning to be appreciated. Her 
policy, as demonstrated by experience, is false not only 
in its ostensible, but also in its secret theory. Her 
project of subverting American slavery by her contem- 
plated system of Africanizing the West Indies, will 
never prove successful, unless, indeed, her influence in 



THE WHIG PARTY. 167 

the North shall overbalance the conservative and con- 
stitutional sentiment of the Union. To bind the North 
to her policy it is necessary that the agitation of slavery 
should continue ; and to keep this agitation alive, it is 
necessary that the sentiments of Northern people should 
be properly educated. She understands well enough 
that the great battles of the world are more controlled 
by ideas than by guns and bayonets. Without the 
employment of her writers and speakers in the unprin- 
cipled work of blackening the character of Napoleon 
Bonaparte, by falsely charging him with every debauch- 
ery and crime imaginable, the English people would 
never have sustained the British government in its years 
of war, and its expenditure of countless millions, and 
sacrifice of thousands of soldiers, to maintain legitimacy, 
and restore a Bourbon to his throne. The struggle was 
noble in the British monarchy, because the monarchical 
system of Europe requires mutual support in such 
cases, the non-observance of which would not only be 
fatal as an example, but infamous as a breach of faith. 
The British government schools her own people con- 
stantly to sentiments calculated to promote her domestic 
and foreign policy. Fortunately for herself, she thinks, 
she finds America a promising pupil, over whose destiny 
she can exercise control. It becomes a religious people 
that they should cherish peace ; therefore we are taught 
not to meddle with the wars of the world. It is unbe- 
coming a Christian people so to do ; and England herself 
never goes to war ! Free trade is, and for years has 
been, most extensively inculcated among Americans by 
England, and to promote free-trade doctrines in the 
United States, it is well known that British gold has 
been liberally used. The preaching here, too, must be 
15* 



168 A HISTORY OF 

sincere, as probably England never cripples her import- 
ations with duties ! That she should instruct Northern 
people to detest slavery is no more than should be ex- 
pected. Her tactics have not always been the most 
just and honorable ; but they have been based on neces- 
sity, and, as in the case of slandering Napoleon, justi- 
fiable on the easy moral principle that the end sanctifies 
the means. 

The Northern men, women, and children, who weep 
over the woes of the enslaved sons of Africa, little sus- 
pect how entirely delusive and unreal are the causes of 
their tears. They only know that they have seen the 
true accounts of slave tortures in veracious books, and 
read them in papers ; and they are sure that slaves are 
innocent victims, and the masters monsters. Frightful 
cases of the cruelty of masters are freely reported. 
Some years ago we saw a pamphlet, or book, profess- 
ing to give a thousand such ; and the Key of Uncle 
Tom's Cabin is said to give a large assortment of that 
kind of evidence. Unfortunately, human nature being 
far from angelic, many cases of cruelty do occur. All 
the cruelty in the world, however, is not crowded into 
the slave states of America. Most diabolical cases often 
occur in the North, and in England, even. But the 
abolitionist will say that in the North such abuses are 
not tolerated — that there they are punished. And in 
this consists the cheat of abolitionism. Those anti- 
slavery tracts and papers that report cases of Southern 
cruelty to slaves, never mention the punishment in- 
flicted by Southern laws upon the wrong-doers. An 
entirely false impression is produced upon the minds 
of the unthinking by such details of outrages, gathered 
from a large extent of country, reaching over a series 



THE WHIG PARTY. 169 

of years, and all pressed upon the reader as evidences 
of the treatment of slaves by their masters. If such 
things were permitted by law in slave states the insti- 
tution would be as barbarous as it was in the ancient 
governments. But everybody, of any information and 
common sense, knows that the Southern people are civ- 
ilized, humane, and Christian. That acts of cruelty to 
slaves are punishable by Southern laws, is not only 
true, but there is also in the South an extremely proper 
public spirit in regard to the obligation of masters to 
use the objects of their trust and care with kindness 
and humanity. Perhaps an instance which fell under 
our own observation will illustrate the whole subject. 
In 1839, in a Southern city, a policeman heard cries of 
distress in a building, and, on entering, found that a 
slave girl had been severely whipped. The stripes upon 
her back were visible, in places cutting through the 
skin, and her shoes were filled with blood which had 
flowed from her wounds. The master was at once cited 
before the police court. There was not a person to be 
met with who was not filled with indignation, and the 
tribunal was crowded with excited and indignant slave- 
holders, as the court visited the. inhuman wretch with 
the severe penalties of the law. But the money he 
was obliged to pay was a small affair, an honorable man 
would judge, compared with the contempt from the vir- 
tuous and good that his barbarity drew upon him. The 
newspapers reported the case, with proper comments on 
the offence. But, in 1842, the full details of the outrage 
were published, amongst others, in an anti-slavery tract, 
and circulated in the North, to enlighten Northern men, 
women, and children, on the subject of slave institu- 
tions. The case was published in the " Thousand 



170 A HISTORY OP 

Oases " spoken of, to convey the idea that such things 
were practised generally, and tolerated in the South, 
and no intimation was given that such an act was 
regarded or treated as criminal, or that the master in- 
curred any punishment, or rebuke, on account of his 
conduct. If it is necessary, for the purposes of mon- 
archy, that the people of the North should be taught to 
hate those of the South, England is right in treating 
the latter as she did Napoleon, that is, in lying about 
and slandering them. 

The ingenuity of the enemies of our country is mani- 
fested in many ways. Among other resorts of such 
persons, high-wrought fictions are invented, depicting 
the anguish of fraternal and parental separations. It is 
not supposed that the Southern people have any com- 
mon understanding or practice of what is most tolerable 
in this matter ; they are depicted as demons, who are 
less influenced by interest than by a native love of acts 
of atrocity. Neither is any allowance made for the 
natural character of the negro. It is not considered 
that such a thing as paternal, fraternal, or marital rela- 
tionship is wholly unknown to the negro in his native 
state. In his African home, the negro, in infancy, may 
have filial, and enjoy the smiles of parental, affections. 
There is no animal that is destitute of this. But in the 
adult state, such a thing as parent, or brother, or a wife, 
is not known. The existence of such relationships 
amongst negroes in America is the gift of slavery, and 
would undoubtedly cease without it. The only civiliza- 
tion the negro can ever sustain must be while in connec- 
tion with the whites, and, unless in very limited num- 
bers, in subjection to them. In Hayti the negroes, since 
their emancipation, are degenerating into barbarism. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 171 

The marriage relation, tolerably preserved in servitude, 
has now become a mockery, and the promiscuous inter- 
course practised in Africa is prevalent. 
- Not satisfied with such atrocious misrepresentations 
as these, the amalgamating abolitionists of the North, 
under the pay and management of England, hold South- 
ern men up to scorn as guilty of the grossest acts of 
lust and debauchery. Slavery is represented as a sys- 
tem of concubinage ! That there are many instances, 
especially in the Southern cities, where the debased from 
all nations centre, where white and black amalgamate, 
is true ; but the illicit intercourse, taken as to the whole 
black and white population, is not a thousandth time as 
extensive as is the same immoral practice carried on in 
Northern states between individuals of the purely white 
race. So, if there is any uncommon guilt in the people 
of the South, it is guilt in matters of taste — in the 
selection of color. This should not be considered a 
reproach in the eyes of an amalgamating abolitionist of 
New or Old England ; but consistency is not a jewel 
when it is the exception, and not the rule, in one's prin- 
ciples. Slavery, since the foundation of the world, has 
been more or less a system of concubinage, until negro 
slavery came into being. If the negroes were really 
created for slaves, Providence provided for the preser- 
vation of their virtue, by making them, in form and 
feature, objects of repugnance and abhorrence. Still, in 
the imaginations of dreaming Northern damsels and 
Jonathans, negresses are painted as the lovely victims 
of the passions of brutal masters, forced by the lash to 
submit to their tyrannic lust ! And that slavery in the 
South is a system of debauchery and crime is quite 



172 A HISTORY OF 

generally credited by England's easy dupes in the 
North. 

But the Missouri struggle ended, in the Congress of 
1820 and '21, by a compromise. The Missouri Com- 
promise, so called, is too well known to everybody to 
need a description ; it was an arrangement by which 
the South made concessions, and gained nothing. The 
admission of Missouri with slavery was her constitu- 
tional right ; but, to gain it, the South had to yield the 
right of carrying slavery into a large portion of the 
Territory of the United States. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 173 



CHAPTER XVII. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER MONROE. DESIG- 
NATED BY MONROE FOR HIS SUCCESSOR. PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANTS. 

CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS NOMINATIONS. — MR. CRAWFORD'S NOMINA- 
TION. MARTIN VAN BUREN, JACKSON, AND CALHOUN. NO ELEC- 
TION BY THE PEOPLE. ELECTION BY THE HOUSE. ADAMS ELECTED 

BY CLAY AND HIS FRIENDS. PARTY SPIRIT REVIVED. FRIENDS 

OF CLAY AND ADAMS UNITE IN A PARTY. — THE WHIG PARTY. — 

JACKSONISM AND ITS SUCCESS. ADMINISTRATION OF J. Q. ADAMS. 

CHANGE OF NEW ENGLAND ON QUESTION OF TARIFF. — CHANGE 

IN THE SOUTH. — ELECTION OF JACKSON. — J. C. CALHOUN VICE- 
PRESIDENT, ETC. 

During the administration of Mr. Monroe the coun- 
try for the first time since the administration of Wash- 
ington was free from the bitterness and strife of political 
parties. The second election of Mr. Monroe was without 
any organized opposition. The old Federal party had 
been completely stranded. The scattered elements of 
that organization existed in the country, but they were 
much dispersed, and in a great measure had become ab- 
sorbed in the more liberal and enlightened Republicanism 
which sprung up during and after the war. While the 
measures advocated by Clay, Lowndes, Calhoun, and 
Crawford, were embraced by the Republican party, there 
was no necessity for a Federal organization, as they 
were generally Federal measures ; that is, they were 
such measures as Hamilton's policy embraced, although 
not such as leading Federalists of a later day advo- 
cated. 



174 A HISTORY OF 

For a successor Mr. Monroe had indicated, as his 
favorite, John Quincy Adams, by appointing him his 
Secretary of State. Mr. Adams was regarded as an un- 
exceptionable Republican, or Democrat, and as such, Mr. 
Madison, in 1809, sent him as Minister to Russia. But 
the Republicans were far from being harmonious upon 
the subject of the successorship. There were several 
leading Democrats, whose names have been mentioned, 
who were ambitious for presidential honors. From 
early times it had been customary for the members of 
Congress, in caucuses called for the purpose, to nomi- 
nate candidates for the presidency ; but to select a 
candidate to succeed Mr. Monroe, that time-honored 
practice was, by a majority of the Republican members 
of Congress, departed from. It was seen at once that 
a majority of the members could not -be concentrated 
upon any one of the aspirants, and it was therefore 
deemed unadvisable to resort to that machinery for a 
candidate. In fact, the result of the caucus which nom- 
inated Mr. Monroe to succeed Mr. Madison excited 
some surprise, and probably disinclined many from a 
further resort to such nominations. It had been the 
general feeling of the country that Mr. Monroe was to 
be the candidate ; still, the industry of Mr. Crawford's 
friends amongst the members of Congress came near 
securing him the nomination. 

Notwithstanding the Republicans, as a general thing, 
had resolved to make no congressional nomination for 
the election of 1824, a portion of them, and that portion 
a considerable minority, concluded to act otherwise. 
The friends of Mr. Crawford were not disposed to abide 
the will of the majority of the Democratic congressmen 
in the premises, and, consequently, had a caucus called 



THE WHIG PARTY. 175 

for the nomination of a candidate. Of course, only the 
friends of Mr. Crawford attended, and his name was 
duly heralded to the country as the regularly nominated 
candidate of the party, in the mode in which candidates 
had usually been put forth in previous times. Of the 
two hundred and sixty-one members, Mr. C. received the 
votes of sixty-four, those being the only members who 
attended the convention ; but, as no congressional nom- 
ination of the Republicans had ever been defeated, Mr. 
Crawford's friends made great calculations on the move- 
ment. The person who engineered this operation was 
Martin Van Buren, senator from the State of New 
York. Mr. Yan Buren's subsequent history is well 
known, and many will say that the course taken by him 
in regard to Mr. Crawford's nomination was character- 
istic. But that gentleman's day of political expecta- 
tions is past, and it would not be decorous to bring 
forward unnecessarily any of his acts which would be 
likely to revive in the mind of the reader forgotten 
animosities. All know that he was a successful politi- 
cian ; and although he may have been indebted much to 
his intrigues for his triumphs, he was by no means so 
big an ignoramus, nor so enormous a knave, as depicted 
by his political opponents in 1840. 

Mr. Yan Buren, it was said, was a Federalist during 
the early part of the late war with England, and sup- 
ported Clinton, the peace candidate, against Mr. Madi- 
son. However, he soon was found in the Republican 
ranks, and was justly regarded as an able and long- 
headed politician. His enemies have charged him 
with always adapting himself with great versatility to 
popular principles, instead, like Washington, Hamilton, 
Madison, Clay, and Webster, of striving to make the 
16 



176 A HISTORY OF 

public mind bend to such principles and measures as 
the public good should require. If these charges were 
correct, they only establish his shrewdness. It was the 
only manner in which he could win honors and gain 
office from the people. It is possible that Mr. Van 
Buren never aspired to the honors of high statesman- 
ship, — that success in political life was all he sought. 
If so, he showed himself master of his art, and attained 
what much greater and better men could not accom- 
plish. Let no man who desires to rise to high office in 
a popular government, ever dare to express sentiments 
distasteful to popular prejudice. The theory of Demo- 
cratic governments is that the people are always right, 
and that the statesman, who shall advocate measures 
not in accordance with the popular opinion, must not 
be trusted nor honored. Washington was elected 
President, it is true ; but he left the office with dis- 
honor in the minds of many. It happened to be the 
good fortune of Jefferson honestly to possess political 
principles and opinions exceedingly flattering to the 
feelings of the generality ; and it should not be said 
that he espoused them for popular effect. He lived 
at a period when his peculiar principles were of vital 
necessity, and history shows him to have been a public 
benefactor. Madison and Monroe were considered the 
exponents of Jeffersonian Democracy, and, under the 
shelter of the Jeffersonian dynasty, administered the 
government with an independence not equalled by any 
subsequent administration. 

But since those eminent statesmen occupied the 
presidential chair, what have been the men our people 
have delighted to honor with the proud title of Presi- 
dent ? We should except from slighting remarks those 



THE WHIG PARTY. 177 

heroes who fought so bravely for their country, — 
Jackson, Harrison, and Taylor, — for, although not 
statesmen, nor versed in public affairs, they were 
patriots and good men, and the honors accorded to 
them were merited. But experience, wisdom, virtue, 
sound statesmanship, and manly independence, have not 
received favor from the people. Politicians have had 
the public ear, filled the popular eye, and enjoyed our 
suffrages, almost without an exception. It ill befits us, 
therefore, to inveigh against Mr. Yan Buren for being 
a mere politician, until we can show ourselves capable 
of appreciating and rewarding political virtues of a 
higher order. 

The candidates, with the exception of Jackson, were 
all able and experienced statesmen. The appearance 
of this gentleman in the field was, at the time, thought 
by the other candidates to be a piece of presumptuous- 
ness. They could scarcely believe that the general was 
serious. He was known to be a brave general, and had 
immortalized his name by his victory at New Orleans ; 
but, as he was entirely the reverse of all the other 
candidates as to statesmanship, and had often previously, 
in declining offices, frankly acknowledged his incompe- 
tency, and had been noted for his aptitude for camp and 
border life, rather than employment in cabinets, it was 
thought hardly reasonable that he should claim, as the 
reward of one fortunate battle, elevation to the presi- 
dency. But, nevertheless, his appearance in the field as 
a competitor was immediately found to be no insignifi- 
cant affair. Mr. Calhoun at once took himself out of the 
way, and was placed upon the Jackson ticket as candi- 
date for Vice-President. Eastern people entertained a 
sectional preference for Adams, and the West and 



178 A HISTORY OF 

South were contended for by the three other candidates. 
Mr. Van Buren's influence was recognized, and Craw- 
ford's friends trusted to him to secure New York for 
their candidate. He certainly made a powerful effort 
for this, but without success. The state cast two-thirds 
of her electoral votes for Mr. Adams, and sealed the 
fate of Mr. Crawford. The encouraging prospects of 
Mr. Clay were blighted by the popularity of Jackson 
in the Western and some of the Southern States. The 
canvass became animated ; but it was a contention for 
preference among four candidates enjoying the same 
political principles, or, at least, belonging to the- same 
party. 

As had been expected, there was no election by the 
people. Jackson received ninety-nine votes, Adams 
eighty-eight, Crawford forty-one, and Clay thirty-seven ; 
consequently the election by the House was limited to 
the three first named. The election in the House 
came off early in 1825, and was intensely exciting. 
Mr. Clay was no longer in the field, and it was seen 
that he and his friends would have the power of decid- 
ing the contest between the other candidates. Of 
course Mr. Crawford stood no chance, saving in case of 
some scarcely expected turn of affairs, as in event the 
friends of Adams or Jackson should be obliged to select 
him as a Hobson's choice. Mr. Clay and Mr. Crawford 
were friends, and Mr. Crawford's friends entertained 
hopes of obtaining the support of the former and of his 
adherents ; but a recent stroke of the paralysis inca- 
pacitated the latter for the duties of the office, and 
Mr. Clay had no alternative but to vote for Jackson or 
Adams. Of his repugnance to the support of Jackson, 
Mr. Clay had never made any secret ; and when the 



THE WHIG PAETY. 179 

controversy became narrowed down to Jackson and 
Adams, the Kentucky statesman had no hesitation in 
giving his support to the latter. 

The result of this election revived the bitterness of 
party spirit. At once the hostility between the Adams 
and Jackson men became fiercer and more irreconcil- 
able than that which formerly raged between the old 
John Adams and Jefferson parties. The Crawford and 
Calhoun parties became absorbed by Jackson's ; and 
Mr. Clay's friends supported Mr. Adams. And thus 
was formed the party organization, which, although at 
first called National Republican, afterwards took the 
name of Whig, and which continued a powerful, con- 
servative, and national party until the presidential 
election of 1852. 

Electioneering, after the election to the presidency of 
John Quincy Adams, took a new form, as well as a new 
spirit. But the Jackson campaigns are too fresh in the 
minds of most people to need description here. On 
one side were paraded, on banners, hickory brooms and 
other devices; on the other, in derision, coffin-hand- 
bills, gambling implements, and fighting cocks. Jack- 
son was regarded by the masses as the true representa- 
tive of the Jeffersonian Democracy, and Adams was 
at once placed under the ban of Federalism. The 
greater part of the old Federalists, it is true, sup- 
ported him ; but his party also received into its ranks 
many who had been born and bred Republicans or 
Democrats. 

The mystery of Jacksonism was not at that day, nor 

is it now, really known. A party of greater vitality, 

energy and enthusiasm, was scarcely ever seen. The 

hero of New Orleans was one of those men who seemed 

16* 



180 A HISTORY OF 

born to command. Unqualified obedience to the chief 
was a test of true Democracy. No matter how learned, 
experienced, wise, talented and prominent, he might be, 
no statesman, politician, office-holder or editor, in the 
Democratic ranks, could retain his standing a moment, 
if he should incur a frown from that singular man. His 
will was law to his party, and that party became the 
country. Never did Cromw T ell rule England with more 
absolute power than General Jackson governed the 
United States. Of course there were, and always will 
be, different opinions as to the merits of his administra- 
tion ; but no one at the present day doubts the exalted 
patriotism of that hero. If there were, in his adminis- 
tration, any errors, they were errors of the head, not 
of the heart. 

The Adams, or Federal, or Whig party was over- 
whelmed by the new-born Democratic power. Every 
one has heard of the famous calumny, charging a bar- 
gain between Adams and Clay, and no one at this day 
doubts its monstrous injustice, not to say wickedness. 
But the credit that that improbable charge obtained 
was attributable to the character and spirit of the times. 
As the fury of the blind and idolatrous party spirit of 
those times abated, and men began to exercise their 
reason and consciences, more justice was done to the 
Whigs who dared to take a stand against the prevailing 
power of the day. At this day neither John Quincy 
Adams nor Henry Clay needs any vindication from the 
charges they were made to suffer under during the 
Jackson administration, and therefore the particulars of 
that calumny need not be brought forth from the obscu- 
rity to which their infamy consigns them. 

The administration of Mr. Adams has ever been 



THE WHIG PARTY. 181 

regarded a model of dignity, economy and purity. 
There was scarcely any proscriptiveness in his appoint- 
ments to office. In the main, his administration was 
based on such Republican principles as had been enter- 
tained by Madison and Monroe ; and, in the presiden- 
tial campaign of 1828, the contest seemed to be in 
regard to men, rather than touching measures, or prin- 
ciples. It is true, Jackson was put forth as the embod- 
iment of Jeffersonian Democracy, and Adams was 
characterized as tainted with Federal sblood. It was 
during the administration of Mr. Adams that the policy 
of protection reached its culminating point, as the 
tariff of 1828 was the last enactment for protection, 
intended as such, ever made by our government. 
During Madison's administration the West and South 
had favored protection, as a measure demanded by the 
best interests of the whole country. The ability and 
patriotism of the eminent Republicans who demon- 
strated the necessity and policy of protection were 
commanding ; and, on reading the discussions of those 
days, it will be seen that the Republican statesmen 
kept in view sound principles of political economy, 
rather than party or sectional ideas. In the East all 
acts for protection had been opposed, as it was con- 
sidered that such measures would put a restraint on 
commerce. Webster had voted and made speeches 
against the tariff of 1824 ; but sustained the act of 1828. 
The election of Adams by the aid of Mr. Clay, who was 
the champion of the American system, as it was called, 
had no doubt some effect in reconciling Mr. Adams' New 
England friends to the doctrine of protection ; and as, 
under the prior tariff acts, New England had begun to 
invest capital in manufactures, a continuance of the 



182 A HISTORY OF 

protective system was deemed necessary, and the pas- 
sage of the act of 1828 required, as in a measure per- 
fecting that system. Mr. Webster at this time had but 
recently taken his seat in the United States Senate. 
The large mass of the Massachusetts delegation in the 
House voted against the tariff of 1828. The tariff of 
1824 received less support from the extreme Southern 
States than did the tariff of 1816, and the act of 1828 
was quite earnestly opposed by some Southern states- 
men. The most of the leading Republicans had ap- 
proved of the doctrine of protection, and such men as 
Jackson, R. M. Johnson, Thomas H. Benton, Martin 
Van Buren, Silas Wright, and James Buchanan, were 
found voting for the tariffs of 1824 and 1828. 

The passage of the tariff bill of 1828 increased the 
Southern opposition to the Adams and Clay administra- 
tion, as portions of the South at that time had begun to 
look upon the doctrine of protection as injurious to 
Southern interests. Parties had not, it is true, made 
the question a matter of political test. Jackson, 
although he had voted for the tariff of 1824, was sup- 
ported for the presidency, in the campaign of 1828, by 
the free-trade portion of the Southern people ; but sub- 
sequent events soon rendered the question of protec- 
tion a party test. 

Mr. Adams, as has been said, adopted the conciliatory 
policy. Mr. Clay, who had been a competitor for the 
presidency, accepted the Secretaryship of State. An- 
other powerful rival, Mr. Crawford, was offered the 
office of Secretary of War ; but, as he declined, a friend 
of his, Mr. Barbor, was placed in that department. Mr. 
McLean, a Jacksonian, was made Postmaster General. 
But the mild policy of Mr. Adams had but little effect 



THE WHIG PARTY. 183 

towards conciliating the opposition which his vigorous 
enemies had aroused against him. No sooner had Mr. 
Clay manifested his preference for Mr. Adams, and, by 
accepting the secretaryship under him, united his party 
with that of the administration, than, as a necessary 
result, a fusion of the other two parties took place. 
Through large portions of the country the Jackson 
fever swept like a prairie fire. The hero *of New 
Orleans was of course triumphantly elected, receiv- 
ing one hundred and seventy-eight out of two hun- 
dred and sixty-one votes; Mr. Adams receiving only 
eighty-three. It is true the disparity between the 
popular votes received by the two candidates was not 
so great ; but even there the majority for Jackson was 
signal. 

John C. Calhoun was elected Vice-President. It will be 
recollected that he ran for Vice-President on the Jackson 
ticket of 1824, and was not, like the general, defeated. 
Martin Van Buren became Secretary of State, and was 
probably the ablest statesman, with the exception of Cal- 
houn and Crawford, that, in the breaking up of the 
Republican party, adhered to the Jackson wing. Cal- 
houn was for the time being lodged in the vice-pres- 
idency, and Crawford's health precluded his ever more 
disturbing the dreams of ambitious aspirants to the 
presidential chair. Probably Jackson used the best 
material he had for his cabinet, at the head of which 
stood Mr. Van Buren. The second place was filled by 
Samuel D. Ingham, who was appointed to the Treasury 
Department. John H. Eaton was made Secretary of 
War, John Branch, Secretary of the Navy, Wm. L. 
Barry, Postmaster General, and John McPherson Ber- 
rien, Attorney General. At a subsequent period there 



184 A HISTORY OF 

were changes, and such men as Taney, Woodbury, and 
Cass, entered the cabinet. On account of a rupture 
between the President and Mr. Calhoun, the cabinet 
was soon remodelled. Some further account of this 
may be necessary. 



THE WHIG PAETY. 185 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

PARTY PRINCIPLES UNDERGO A CHANGE. — WHIGS ADHERE TO THE MEAS- 
URES OF MADISON AND MONROE. JACKSON PROPOSES TO RESTORE 

JEFFERSONIAN PRINCIPLES. KITCHEN CABINET. MARTIN VAN 

BUREN. — NEW TACTICS. — LEADING DEMOCRATS. — WHIGS. — MEAS- 
URES OF THE WHIGS. — POLITICAL IDOLATRY. — CAUSES OF JACKSON'S 
SUCCESS. 

The Jacksonian Democratic and the Whig parties 
were in many respects new parties. Both the Federal 
and the Republican parties had gone through changes 
since their origin, and, although vast numbers of the 
Federalists attached themselves to the Whig party, 
they did not adopt any new party principles, or other 
than those inculcated by Madison and Monroe. The 
departure from Republican principles was on the part of 
the Jackson Democracy. It is true, the leaders of this 
last-named party professed the necessity of restoring 
the Republican principles of early Jeffersonian Democ- 
racy, as it was thought there had been a dangerous 
departure. Consequently, Jefferson's opposition to the 
United States Bank was revived, and Jackson, in his 
first annual message, announced his hostility to it. That 
message was a pretty carefully drawn paper. As to 
protection and internal improvement, it was so worded 
as to allow, without any great violence, a construction 
favorable or unfavorable to these measures. That these 
measures were as anti-Jeffersonian as the bank policy, 



186 A HISTORY OF 

is true, as Jefferson opposed many of the measures pro- 
posed by his rival Hamilton ; but to denounce measures 
that he had himself supported in Congress, was a step 
that even the resolute Jackson might well hesitate to 
take. The position of the message on the navy was 
also characteristic, if we are to suppose that that state 
paper was drawn by the Secretary of State. Jefferson 
had opposed the establishment of a navy. President 
Jackson's position in regard to the naval establishment 
was judicious, and sufficiently restrictive to satisfy the 
somewhat liberalized feeling of the Democracy upon the 
subject. 

But the most interesting feature of Jackson's admin- 
istration was found in his cabinet, — Kitchen Cabinet, 
as it was called in its day. The pictures of Major Jack 
Downing are too fresh in the reader's recollection to 
justify an attempt at an account of it. All that need 
be said is, that it was a brisk establishment. We have, 
perhaps, no reliable disclosures of the secrets of that 
cabinet, as possibly Downing's account will hardly pass 
for history. We can only draw our surmises from re- 
sults or events. The presence of Mr. Van Buren in that 
domestic establishment was an undisputed fact. His 
connection with events, or influence in their produc- 
tion, cannot in all cases be demonstrated, because the 
secrets of the council-chamber have never been re- 
vealed. Mr. Benton was not privy to the doings of the 
penetralia or innermost recesses of the cabinet, and 
therefore his labored exculpation, in his Thirty Years in 
the United States Senate, of Mr. Van Buren from in- 
trigues against Mr. Calhoun, is not to be regarded as 
decisive in the matter. Perhaps, on the other hand, 
the universal opinion at the time should not be con- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 187 

sidered as conclusive. One thing is very certain ; if 
Mr. Van Buren espoused the cause of Jackson, shaped 
the policy of his administration, and engineered the 
plots and conspiracies of the day, with a view of attain- 
ing the presidency, no one can sneer at his efforts, or 
laugh at him for the result. Those usually laugh who 
win. 

Mr. Van Buren brought into Jackson's cabinet a 
fiercer party spirit than ever had been entertained in 
any previous President's cabinet. The tactics of the 
Albany regency were transferred to the national admin- 
istration. The proscriptiveness of the Democracy of 
New York, which had been excessive, was, with the 
elevation of Van Buren to a place in the President's 
cabinet, adopted in regard to office-holders under the 
general government. Eemovals became general. Un- 
der Washington and the elder Adams there had been but 
few, — some nine or ten under each, — and none at all 
on account of party spirit. Jefferson, under the extraor- 
dinary excitement of his times, made but thirty-nine ; 
Madison but five ; Monroe but nine ; and John Quincy 
Adams but two ; but thousands of removals were made 
by Jackson, and the practice of the present day, of 
making the change of administration a signal for rota- 
tion of office-holders, had its origin with his admin 
istration. 

The Democrats, during and subsequent to the war 
with England, had been preeminent for able statesmen ; 
but the more radical Democratic party that sprang into 
existence under Jackson found itself confronted with a 
powerful array of talent. The bad fame of Federalism 
was at that time at its height amongst the masses of 
the American people ; and because the Federalists, as 
17 



188 A HISTORY OF 

a general thing, espoused the new organization, the 
Democratic leaders were quite successful in rendering 
the National Republicans, as they were called, unpop- 
ular, by charging them with Federalism. And with the 
Democracy there was no lack of ability. Martin Van 
Buren's talents can be recognized when it is recollected 
that he encountered the ablest men in both parties, and 
triumphed over them. His ambition was to attain the 
presidency ; and to reach that goal he cleared his path 
of every obstruction, and was crowned with honors 
that Crawford, Calhoun, Benton, Webster, Clay, and 
other able cotemporaries, sighed for in vain. Benton, 
Van Buren, and Webster, were all born in the same year 
(1182), and were not far from the ages of Calhoun and 
Clay. There were among other able congressmen who 
adhered to the Democracy of Jackson, Henry Hubbard, 
who had formerly been a Federalist, James K. Polk, 
Cave Johnson, Richard M. Johnson, J. Y. Mason, 
George McDuffie, C. C. Cambreling, Tristram Burgess, 
Andrew Stevenson, Levi Woodbury, Silas Wright, Mah- 
lon Dickerson, John Tyler, Robert Y. Hayne, John 
Forsyth, Felix Grundy, William R. King, James Bu- 
chanan (in boyhood said to have been slightly tinc- 
tured with Federalism), Isaac Hill, and David Crockett. 
The most noted, whose names readily occur, are men- 
tioned ; there having been others, perhaps equally able, 
who are omitted. The Whigs, however, were led by 
Clay and Webster, with as fine an array of talent and 
genius in their ranks as is often found in a political 
party. Mr. Adams was in the House in the Twenty- 
second Congress, and remained ever true to the princi- 
ples of the administrations of Madison and Monroe. He 
continued in Congress during his life. The leading 



THE WHIG PARTY. 189 

Nationals, or Whigs, who were in Congress during 
Jackson's administration, need not be named, as they 
are in the recollection of most readers. Everett and 
Choate were there, with other able men from Massa- 
chusetts, such as Bates, Davis, Appleton and Briggs. 
George Evans, John Bell, Thomas Corwin, Thomas 
Ewing, S. F. Vinton, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Samuel 
Prentiss, Millard Fillmore, and many more might be 
named who led in the National Republican ranks in Con- 
gress. Mr. Benton, in his Thirty Years in the United 
States Senate, is not very minute as to his views and 
course on the prominent measures of his day prior to 
the Twenty-second Congress, but contents himself with 
an ample display of his championship of the Democratic 
measures of that and the subsequent period of his sena- 
torial life. 

The National Republicans, as the Clay and Adams 
party were at first termed, or Whigs, as they were after- 
wards called, and as we will hereafter call them, greatly 
annoyed and embarrassed the Democrats, as we will 
hereafter style the other party, by making political 
issues, and putting forth principles and measures as 
party tests. The United States Bank, Internal Improve- 
ments, the Tariff, &c, were at once unfurled upon the 
Whig banners, and the advocacy of these measures was 
claimed as the distinctive characteristic of the Whig 
party. This was regarded as unfair by Jackson and 
his friends, as the most of them were or had been favor- 
able to, and had sustained, these measures. It was sup- 
posed by the Whigs that the administration, were it 
to change front~ on such long-mooted, and, as was 
thought, finally settled systems of policy, would bring 
upon itself certain destruction. It was supposed that 



190 A HISTORY OP 

the people were competent to weigh and correctly 
decide questions of national policy, and that a depart- 
ure by the administration from what the clearest- 
minded statesmen had demonstrated, and the experi- 
ence of the past had established, to be for the best 
interests of the country, would bring down upon it 
popular disapprobation. It was, therefore, with great 
reluctance that many leading Democrats accepted the 
issues tendered by the Whigs, which established, as it 
were, a new system of electioneering. When the. try- 
ing moment came, — when the instant for acting in 
defiance of settled convictions was at hand, — some 
disposed to be Democrats, and follow the fortunes of 
Jackson, found their sense of duty and honor too strong, 
and became the victims of their consciences. But cor- 
rect principles do not always secure the triumph of a 
party. The success of party frequently has its basis 
in anything but truth. The greater the error, the 
greater the enthusiasm. The Whigs placed their whole 
hopes on the right and justice of their cause, while their 
antagonists sought theirs in the passions of the multi- 
tude. The Democracy, under the lead of Jackson, 
triumphed over the Bank, the Tariff and Internal Im- 
provements ; but no sensible reader supposes that in 
this the triumph was in the reason of the people. To 
suppose that the mass of the American voters had 
deliberately examined and pronounced upon the great 
questions so carefully weighed and settled by such 
Democrats as Clay, Calhoun, Lowndes, Crawford and 
Cheeves, and had intelligently reversed the decisions of 
these men, would be ridiculous. Politics, like religion, 
is with the masses a matter of faith. 

We all remember the enthusiasm that pervaded the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 191 

Democracy of those days — styled Jacksonian Democ- 
racy. In what the real spirit of that party consisted, 
it would perhaps be hard to tell. Reason never acts 
with such impulse. The candid reader must admit that 
the passions were more involved than the intellect. 
The Whigs of those days denounced the blind and 
devoted attachment of millions to their chief, as " man- 
worship. " The Whigs, of course, were more or less 
prejudiced ; but, after all, it is not disputed that, in the 
passionate devotion manifested by multitudes to General 
Jackson, there was something resembling idolatry. The 
object of idolatry may be worthy or unworthy, may be 
right or wrong ; but, whatever its qualities, its perfec- 
tions or imperfections, its virtues or vices, it is never 
regarded by its worshippers in the light of reason. 
Idolatry is not an intellectual attribute ; it is a passion 
that overwhelms and extinguishes the intellect. And 
idolatry pervades all nations, all people. He is a rare 
lan who has no touch of it in his nature. Priestcraft 
t-nd kingcraft, that have endured since man has existed, 
are founded on it. Old systems, old regimes decay, but 
only to make places for new ones. The form undergoes 
a change, but the principle remains always the same. 
It matters little whether the priest be a Christian, a 
Druid, or a minister of Jupiter, if he be but idolized. 
There is no understanding, no reason, no operation of 
the intellect in the matter. The love of Mahomet is 
pure and devoted. The enthusiastic worship of Brahma 
has endured for ages. Joe Smith has left as ardent 
worshippers as any earth-born god of ancient or modern 
days. Caesar, Alexander, and Napoleon, were all men 
of transcendent abilities, and each was endowed with a 
peculiar faculty of exerting power over the affections 
17* 



192 A HISTORY OF 

of men. Their empires were in the hearts of men. 
Washington was cast in a different mould. He pos- 
sessed none of that power of fascination peculiar to the 
great captains mentioned, and which was in an eminent 
degree enjoyed by Jackson. The confidence reposed in 
Washington was of slow growth, and the love he in- 
spired was the passion warmed into existence by the 
clear rays of the intellect. From the outset he was 
beset with conspiracies, cabals and traitors, and at times 
the "Continental Congress was itself largely poisoned 
against him. But, step by step, as he conducted our 
little forces through the most trying perils of the Revo- 
lution, did his firmness, his judgment, his prudence and 
his undying vigilance, wring from the intelligent and 
judicious the verdict due to his merits. His modera- 
tion and caution; his circumspection, that seemed almost 
timidity; his long-continued retreats and refusals to risk 
engagements ; his patience and coolness, that never 
betrayed him into a rash or hazardous battle ; his self- 
sacrificing firmness in resisting the popular clamor for 
action, and in persisting in risking nothing that might 
endanger a cause that he knew was safe, have demon- 
strated his greatness and prudence, and caused the 
intelligent to think that he must have been raised up by 
Providence specially for the crisis. But Washington's 
most ardent admirers and most devoted worshippers 
are, and always have been, among the cultivated and 
intellectual. In the army he was by no means the 
stony image of a Wellington, for his soldiers could not 
repay his superhuman devotion to their comfort and 
rights with indifference ; but to win applause and love 
from the populace, the hero must be a popular hero ; he 
must show himself great in attributes that are peculiar 



THE WHIG PARTY. 193 

to all men. The masses have but little sympathy with 
moral or intellectual heroes. The most profound intel- 
lects of modern times may have made lasting impres- 
sions on their age, but have inspired anything but 
enthusiasm amongst the people. Probably millions of 
their contemporaries were acquainted with % the names 
of Newton and La Place, who could not tell for what 
either was noted ; and the most transcendent intellects 
are not the ones that usually receive the admiration of 
the multitude. There seems to be in the heart of man 
an innate feeling of reverence and love for military 
achievements, to which General Jackson's exploits min- 
istered in a high degree. The war with England had 
been vastly popular with the larger portion of the 
people, and nothing could have made a deeper impres- 
sion upon their hearts than his truly heroic triumph 
over the British at New Orleans. Furthermore, the 
people of the United States have, from the foundation 
of the government, been divided into two parties — the 
Conservative, and the Liberal or Democratic ; — and 
up to the administration of Jackson, an overwhelming 
majority had belonged to the latter party. In founding 
the Democratic party, Jefferson had advanced principles 
and measures which were evidently inspired by hostility 
to Hamilton and the Federalists ; but, for all this, the 
rapid increase of the Democracy was mainly owing to 
its being based on the hatred and bitter prejudices lin- 
gering in the hearts of the people against England. 
It was, in its origin, as much the creature of the pas- 
sions as of the reason, and consequently its occasional 
changes of measures, principles and policy, by its lead- 
ing men, have been attended with no particular detri- 
ment to its popularity. The Federal party, of course, 



194 A HISTORY OF 

was only in degree its superior in regard to its mode of 
existence. Parties are parties ; some good, some bad, 
and all more or less the creatures of the passions. The 
Federal party, at the period of the last war with Eng- 
land, was not the Federal party of the days of John 
Adams' administration ; and the National Republican 
and Whig parties were not identical with either. It is 
true that the members of the old Federal party, as a 
general thing, adhered to the last named parties ; but 
what is meant is that the anti-Democratic parties were 
no more uniform in their principles than the Democracy 
itself. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 195 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MR. VAN BUREN'S SUPPOSED ASPIRATIONS. — QUARREL BETWERN CAL- 
HOUN AND JACKSON, HOW PRODUCED, AND OBJECT. CABINET 

REMODELLED. — VAN BTOtEN APPOINTED MINISTER TO ENGLAND, 
AND APPOINTMENT NOT CONFIRMED BY SENATE. — JACKSON'S AD- 
MINISTRATION. SOUTH CAROLINA RESISTS THE TARIFF. POSITION 

OF THAT STATE ON THE QUESTION OF SECESSION. DEBATE IN THE 

U. S. SENATE, AND WEBSTER'S REPLY TO COL. HAYNE. — DANIEL 
WEBSTER AND HIS CHARACTER. HIS DEMOLITION OF THE NULLIFI- 
CATION AND HIGHER-LAW DOCTRINE, ETC. 

If the opinion of the times is any test, we shall see 
that Mr. Van Buren was the master-spirit of Jackson's 
administration ; that he was the controlling genius of 
the Democracy of those days. Considering Mr. Van 
Buren's standing and abilities, and his controlling 
influence with the Democracy of the controlling State 
of New York, it was nothing strange that he should 
have been placed at the head of Jackson's cabinet. 
No one better than that gentleman understood the 
advantages of his position, and but few knew better 
how to use them. His eye was at once fixed with a 
steadfast gaze upon the presidential chair. His favor- 
ite, Crawford, was no longer in the field. Clay and 
Webster were of the opposition. Mr. Adams made no 
further pretensions. There was but one rival, and that 
rather a formidable one. The Vice-President, John C. 
Calhoun, it was well known, had a right, on account of 



196 A HISTORY OF 

his eminent abilities and faithful services, to indulge in 
presidential expectations. He was an eminent states- 
man, and of commanding influence in the Democratic 
party. Unless Mr. Calhoun's claims could be averted, 
there would be no prospect for Mr. Van Buren, and the 
disposal of this rival was the most serious labor on the 
hands of the last-named gentleman. 

It was at the time, by Whigs at least, supposed that 
the quarrel between Jackson and Calhoun (which ful- 
minated early in 1831) was brought about by Van 
Buren. Many expedients, it was said, had been re- 
sorted to in vain for the purpose. The ears of Jackson 
had been filled with stories of Calhoun's falsehood and 
political ambition ; of his machinations to oust the gen- 
eral at the next presidential election, and so forth ; but 
at all this, and much more of the sort, Jackson was 
indifferent — unmoved. But, at last, the President's ire 
was aroused to the highest pitch, and Calhoun's fall 
from the Democracy was one of the strange political 
events of those eventful times. It appears that, during 
Mr. Monroe's administration, Jackson had, without any 
authority, entered the Spanish province of Florida, 
taken possession of Pensacola, and acted in rather an 
arbitrary, but nevertheless quite a salutary manner, in 
a neighbor's dominions. The Indians from that quarter 
had been accustomed to sally forth to murder our cit- 
izens ; and emissaries of Britain were there to provoke, 
in accordance with her ancient practice, such savage 
depredations upon our borders. Impelled by necessity, 
which many thought sufficient law for the occasion, 
General Jackson entered Florida, broke up the haunt, 
reduced the savages to terms, and executed two of those 
British agents. The affair was not only taken up in 



THE WHIG PAETY. 197 

Congress, but, as afterwards turned out, was also con- 
sidered in the cabinet at the time. Some of the ablest 
members of that cabinet thought the act of the general 
should be censured. It was the feeling of no one that 
he should be anything more than censured, or punished 
nominally, as by a temporary suspension, or something 
of that kind ; but, as he had acted clearly without author- 
ity in entering the province of a neutral power, many 
thought that some notice should be taken of it. Mr. 
Calhoun, it seems, so thought. But, finally, the matter 
was passed over, and, as Spain was of not much conse- 
quence, no great attention was paid to the transaction. 
Such cabinet consultations, however, are considered 
confidential, and are generally kept secret ; but after 
the lapse of years, and after Calhoun's election to the 
vice-presidency on General Jackson's ticket (Mr. Cal- 
houn having, in 1824, taken himself out of the way as a 
candidate, and given his support to the general), the 
precious secret came to light. It was obtained from 
Mr. Crawford, who had been at the time a member of the 
cabinet, and so published in a correspondence as to meet 
the president's eye. The spark had reached the magazine 
at last, and the explosion was terrific. Mr. Calhoun did 
not deny that he had favored some such action ; but, at 
the same time, he thought it no disparagement to Jack- 
son. He claimed that he had proposed no such censure 
or punishment as an enemy of that personage, but as a 
step which the government could not, under the cir- 
cumstances, omit with safety or decency. 

The rupture between Jackson and Calhoun led to the 
necessity of remodelling the cabinet. To smooth the 
way for this, some members resigned, and, among others, 
Mr. Van Buren. This gentleman, as will be'recollected, 



198 A HISTORY OF 

was appointed Minister to England ; and it will also be 
recollected that his appointment was not confirmed 
when brought before the Senate. This fact will show 
the party bitterness of the times, and the enmity that 
Mr. Van Buren had excited against himself. There 
were prominent men in the Senate who thought that 
he was too ambitious for the presidency, and who 
seemed to think that the refusal of that body to con- 
firm his appointment would cast a blight upon his fast 
budding popularity. But the favorite of the hero of 
New Orleans was not to be put down in this manner. 
He was obliged to return from England ; but his rise to 
the presidency was rather favored than injured by the 
action of the Senate. 

It will not be necessary here to speak of all the ex- 
citing measures and transactions of Jackson's adminis- 
tration, as the questions as to the policy of many of them 
are already slumbering in the tomb of the past. Even 
the currency question, so long, so powerfully, and so 
fiercely agitated by the ablest statesmen of the age, is 
now scarcely heard of. The removal of deposites ; the 
Senate's resolution of censure ; the President's protest ; 
the expunging resolution ; were all ephemeral transac- 
tions, and have now no value as political events. The 
question in regard to the proceeds of the sales of the 
public lands has lost much of its former interest ; and the 
Indian removals, the West India trade, and many other 
topics, of lively interest in those days, have but little 
bearing upon the politics of the present times. There 
are some measures which were discussed during Jack- 
son's administration, however, that have come down to 
us as party issues, and still are the subjects of vigorous 



THE WHIG PARTY. 199 

contention. Among these the most prominent is the 
tariff. 

The tariff of 1828 had been unsatisfactory to the 
leading politicians of South Carolina. The enmity in 
that state to the doctrine of protective tariffs had been 
growing for some time, and was quite decidedly fixed by 
the act of that year. Travellers from the South had 
found that Northern cities were growing faster than 
some Southern ones ; that the principal Eastern em- 
poriums were flourishing better than Charleston, of 
South Carolina ; and the conclusion was very rashly 
jumped at that this was all the result of the tariffs. 
Charleston and other Southern cities, it was said, had 
retrograded, and were not even so prosperous as they had 
been in the colonial state. There was some plausibility, 
though but little justice, in the South Carolina theory in 
regard to the matter. They saw that the principal 
exports of the country were from the South, and were 
of products not benefited by protection ; and that the 
North were alone enjoying all the benefits of the tariff 
system. The tariff, they urged, was in effect a tax on 
exports, and the whole revenue of the government a 
charge upon the South. And, further, it was, they 
thought, the interest of the South to maintain free trade 
with England who bought their cotton, hemp and to- 
bacco, as a prohibition of British goods would have a 
tendency to diminish the British demand for these prod- 
ucts. This last position was seriously entertained by 
many Southern statesmen. The politicians of South Car- 
olina yielded themselves up without reserve to the con- 
viction that they were the victims of partial legislation. 
They had no doubt of the fact, and really felt that the 
selfish and ungenerous North and West were throwing 
18 • 



200 A HISTORY OF 

upon their shoulders unjust burdens, and making them- 
selves rich out of Southern industry. That the sons 
of Carolina should feel unutterable indignation at the 
thought that they were the objects of a systematic 
oppression by a selfish and unyielding majority, was 
nothing strange ; and that, goaded to despair by such 
a feeling, they should, Green-Mountain-Boys-like, rather 
than submit to such an outrage, take up arms and 
"make war on human nature at large," would appear 
nothing marvellous to a brave man. However, that 
they were influenced by a sad delusion is apparent 
enough. They too readily embraced the belief that 
they were the subjects of partial and unconstitutional 
legislation. The mass of the South Carolina people 
easily yielded their faith to the opinions of leaders who 
had formed their conclusions too rashly. Being them- 
selves naturally a liberal and generous hearted people, 
they were the last in the world that would tamely 
submit to what their sentiments of justice and honor 
taught them to consider mean, base, and oppressive. 

We are apt to think that all legislation which thwarts 
our interests or passions is unconstitutional. Alien and 
sedition laws, annexation laws, embargo laws, non-inter- 
course laws, fugitive slave laws, Wilmot proviso laws, 
territorial intervention laws, bank laws, temperance laws, 
and multitudes of other laws, have from time to time 
been denounced, as well as tariff laws, as unconstitu- 
tional. This plea is a natural resort, under our system 
of government, when we find the majority against us. 
But it has, as a general thing, since the foundation of 
our government, been customary to defer, on all questions 
as to the constitutionality of the acts of Congress, to 
the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 201 

Even Virginia, the leader in the states-rights doctrine, 
the promulgator of the celebrated resolutions of 1*798, 
— resolutions inspired by the famous alien and sedi- 
tion laws, — never dreamed of questioning the conclus- 
iveness of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
United States on all such questions ; and although she 
looked upon these alien and sedition laws as entirely 
unconstitutional and most abhorrent, still, Callender was 
arrested for their violation, and imprisoned in her capi- 
tal, and her citizens never thought of resorting to any 
higher law than provided by the Constitution of the 
country. Perhaps the excitement in Virginia was not 
so fierce, in regard to those sedition laws, as it was in 
Massachusetts, at. a later date, against the embargo 
acts. The frenzy in the latter state was so extreme 
as to cause some of her citizens to think that their leg- 
islature could afford them relief from the laws of the 
United States. But, during the noblest part of her his- 
tory, Massachusetts has taught nothing but obedience 
to the acts of the national legislature. It wa»? the 
misfortune of South Carolina to fall into the error em- 
braced, at an earlier period, by some of the more ardent, 
and less considerate sons of the Bay State ; and a con- 
vention, not unlike what the Hartford Convention was 
usually thought to have been, was contemplated by the 
irritated citizens of the Palmetto State. The states- 
men of South Carolina took the position that the union 
of the states is but a compact, the Constitution being 
its grant and limitation of powers. They claimed that 
the passage of an act unauthorized by the Constitution 
is an absolute nullity, and not binding upon anybody ; 
that it is for each state to determine for itself the con- 
stitutionality or unconstitutionality of the acts of Con- 



202 A HISTORY OF 

gress. The Constitution, according to their theory, is 
but a congeries of concessions, or conceded powers, to 
the general government, made by the states ; all powers 
inherent in the states, and not surrendered at the 
time of the formation of the Union, remaining still in 
them respectively ; and that, as a matter of course, 
each state reserved the right of judging for itself as 
to the constitutionality of any laws that this govern- 
ment might enact. It would be no compact, they 
contended, if the state acceding to the Union were 
to be bound by the acts and decisions of that Union, 
with no power of judging as to its own rights. And, 
further, they claimed the right of secession, or with- 
drawal, from the Union. 

The first appearance of these Carolina doctrines in 
Congress was at the time of the celebrated debate 
by Webster and Hayne, in 1830. Mr. Webster had 
watched the symptoms of disaffection in the South, and 
seen the spread of those dangerous principles with a 
great deal of apprehension. At this time he was 
not a violent party man, — in fact, he never was. 
Our country has not produced a more substantial, up- 
right, patriotic, and independent statesman, than Dan- 
'iel Webster. That he was not always popular, and 
was, during the most of his political life, in the party 
of the minority, should be regarded as evidence that 
he preferred his country's to his own welfare. His 
stand on public measures, and his support of men and 
parties, were not fixed by the decrees of fate, but were 
matters of his own choice. He could have continued 
the supporter of Jackson, and been made President ; 
but where, had such been the case, would have been 
those luminous and unparalleled discourses on constitu- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 203 

tional law, and on the domestic and foreign policy of 
our government, for all which our country is indebted 
to his opposition to the administration of that great, 
but not politically perfect, man ? Mr. Webster's course 
in regard to public measures was never shaped by the 
consultations of caucuses, nor by the intrigues of party 
plotters. As questions of public policy arose, he at 
once applied his mind to their investigation, and with- 
out hesitation, and with the boldness and power pecu- 
liar to his nature, announced his convictions in regard to 
them. His intellectual faculties were conceded to be 
unparalleled in the age in which he lived ; and, of all 
the transcendent powers and affections of his mind and 
heart, his perception and devotion to principles were 
the most commanding. With an intellect highly philo- 
sophic in its cast, he possessed those high moral qual- 
ities which rendered his love of truth and principle a 
controlling passion. It was scarcely possible for a 
mind constituted like Mr. Webster's to act otherwise 
than in accordance with his convictions of right ; and 
consequently he was naturally averse to compromise. 
His congressional experience, at the time of his debate 
with Gol. Hayne, had been considerable ; it will be 
recollected that he was then (1830) forty-eight years of 
age. He had been elected to Congress (from Portsmouth, 
N. H.) when he was about thirty years old (1812), and 
was again returned from the same place in 1814. In 
1816 he removed to Boston, and from that city was 
sent to Congress in 1822, and was continued in the 
House until his election to the Senate in 182*7. 

We see that Daniel Webster was not a native of 
Massachusetts. He was a son of New Hampshire, the 
Granite State, as it is called ; a granite boulder that 
18* 



204 A HISTORY OP 

the frosts of penury had rent from his native mountains, 
and, after having been for some time drifted at the 
mercy of the elements, at last lodged upon the grate- 
ful bosom of the Old Bay State. To continue the 
figure, it may truly be said that he became the "rock 
of her defence. " When she was attacked, — when her 
history was assailed, — when poisoned arrows were 
aimed at her heart by an envenomed foe, — Daniel Web- 
ster was her rampart — her Gibraltar. Mr. Webster 
had not been born to wealth, nor advanced in youth 
by the appliances and influences of power. His fathei 
was an humble farmer, and Daniel was brought into exist- 
ence in an obscure rural section of the country, — a 
section only known for its ungrateful soil, its rugged 
hills, and the poverty of its inhabitants. In this re- 
spect Henry Clay was more favored than his younger 
contemporary. Almost at the outset of Mr. Clay's life 
he was thrown into the society of men of standing, learn- 
ing; and wealth ; and Mr. Clay's lack of the knowledge 
of books was perhaps more than compensated by his 
endowment with the peculiar ability of obtaining that 
knowledge at second-hand, by readily drawing it from 
book-learned men. Furthermore, there is a difference 
between the people of the South and the North in 
regard to their encouragement of talent. In the South, 
it has been often observed, the first dawnings of talent 
are hailed with admiration ; and the young man of 
promise and worth is advanced, and receives ever}' aid 
and support that his merits will warrant. A fair field 
and a fair trial are given him, with every sympathy in 
his favor. But in the North, talent and worth must 
fight their way into favor ; and then, unless the indi- 
vidual shall sacrifice his manhood and independence by 



THE WHIG PARTY. 205 

doing homage to the bigoted notions or prevailing 
prejudices of the. hour, the talents and virtues of a 
Webster would not save him from neglect and con- 
tempt. Fortunately, Mr. Webster removed to Bos- 
ton at a period when her able, great and good men had 
influence with the people of Massachusetts. His abili- 
ties were recognized and appreciated, and the Old Bay 
State had cause to rejoice in her acquisition. The 
career of Webster is too well known to justify even a 
slight repetition. In the House, in the Senate, and in the 
highest courts of the land, he at once took the first rank. 
As a legislator he regarded his position as a trust to 
be exercised for the benefit of the whole country. Nar- 
row or sectional feelings could find no entrance, much 
less abiding-place, in his heart. Throughout his life he 
was characterized for an enthusiastic love of country. 
Patriotism was his absorbing passion. His father had 
been a Revolutionary soldier, and Webster's infancy 
immediately succeeded the great drama in which that 
father had been an actor. Hence the earliest impres- 
sions of his uncommon mind must have been favorable 
for the promotion of lasting sentiments of patriotism. 
The Constitution of the United States was formed and 
promulgated to the country when Daniel was about 
eight years of age. It was a topic that commanded 
intense interest among the hardy yeomanry of the 
country ; and the sentiments of loyalty with which 
that instrument was treated by his parents and neigh- 
bors inspired young Webster himself with a veneration 
for it that became, in after life, a marked and enduring 
feature of his character. The adoption of the Constitu- 
tion by the people of the United States formed an 
epoch in the country's history. It was something new, 



206 A HISTORY OF 

interesting and important, and was at once published 
everywhere. It was doubtless printed in many forms, 
and on many fabrics. As a significant anecdote, it is 
said that Mr. Webster never forgot that in those days 
he used to peruse the great charter of American liberties 
printed upon his pocket-handkerchief. 

Therefore, when Colonel Hayne, in the United States 
Senate, advanced the new-born South Carolina doctrines, 
and in that high tribunal openly advocated nullification 
and disunion, it was by no means strange that the vast 
" deeps " of Mr. Webster's soul should have been 
stirred. The Senate to Mr. Webster was a sacred 
place. He looked upon all the institutions of his coun- 
try with veneration, and never entered the humblest 
court of justice without a feeling of awe for the sanc- 
tity of the tribunal. But the Senate of the United 
States was invested in his eyes with peculiar sacredness. 
Much of this feeling is manifested in his celebrated 
reply to Colonel Hayne. But that great speech of Mr. 
Webster is well known to every reader of the English 
language, or should be. The higher law set up by the 
nullifiers received a signal overthrow, and the Constitu- 
tion an interpretation that has never since been ques- 
tioned by any sensible man, North or South. The 
nullifiers were at the time too far committed to their 
course of nullification to retreat ; but no doubt that 
thousands, in other parts of the South, to whom the 
Carolina theory had looked plausible, were, by the great 
argument of Mr. Webster, at once and forever saved 
from the gulf of nullification. 

Colonel Hayne was a learned, talented and eloquent 
orator. He was no doubt firmly impressed with the 
correctness and justice of his views. There is some- 



THE WHIG PABTY. 207 

thing plausible to the superficial inquirer in the doctrine 
that a state should not be bound by what to her may 
clearly appear to be an unconstitutional law. And, 
more especially, when the national legislature shall 
make an enactment that appears to cleave down the 
natural rights of a portion of the people, — that 
tramples upon and enslaves them, — it seems hard to 
insist that such people shall be subject to no relief but 
the national tribunal, that is supposed to sympathize 
with the majority which controls the national legisla- 
ture. Fallacious and disorganizing as such higher-law 
doctrines may be, the country has not always been free 
from them. At their first appearance in the Senate, they 
were rebuked by Mr. Webster. That such principles 
should be rebuked by a Massachusetts man inspired 
great indignation in the heart of Colonel Hayne. He 
did not limit himself solely to a defence of his doctrines, 
but turned upon Massachusetts, and represented her as 
ever having been the champion of higher laws, and as 
possessing the least possible reverence for such acts of 
the general government as displease her prejudices. 
The controversy, as initiated by the South Carolina 
politicians, was made to take a sectional character, and 
it opened by fierce onslaughts by members of one sec- 
tion of the country upon the history, character and 
institutions of another. Colonel Hayne could, without 
difficulty, find imperfections in Massachusetts humanity, 
and Webster could, if he had been disposed, have made 
quite a railing speech in regard to Carolina's antece- 
dents. But Webster's triumph was in the loftiness of 
his sentiments, his magnanimity, and the more than 
sun-light clearness with which he demonstrated the 
position that the only alternative was obedience to the 



208 A HISTORY OF 

laws of the United States, or revolution. The Senate 
he regarded as no arena for the indulgence in "sectional 
aspersions ; and, instead of expending his force in dis- 
covering and exposing, in glowing colors, the errors and 
mistakes of a sister state, he dwelt on the past glories of 
both Carolina and Massachusetts, and shrank with horror 
from the contemplation of the time when the bonds of 
union shall be rent asunder. His vindication of Massa- 
chusetts was so noble, — he so obscured the follies of her 
insane fanatics by enlarging upon that earlier period of 
her history when she was ruled by statesmen and 
patriots, — he made "the past, at least," of the old Bay 
State so brilliant and glorious, that all the errors of a 
later day became invisible. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 209 



CHAPTER XX. 

3FFECT OF JACKSON 'fl ELECTION ON THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM. — CLAY 

AMBITIOUS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. HE HAT) FORCED THE TARIFF 

SYSTEM AS AN ISSUE ON JACKSON. WEBSTER'S AMBITION. JACKSON 

DID NOT NEGLECT HIS OPPONENTS. WHIG NATIONAL CONVENTION, 

DEC. 1831. — PARTY PLATFORM. CLAY CANDIDATE. — CAMPAIGN OF 

1832. — UNITED STATES BANK QUESTION. — JACKSON REELECTED. 

VAN BUREN VICE-PRESIDENT, ETC. 

The first election of General Jackson left the Amer- 
ican system of Mr. Clay in rather an equivocal position. 
Mr. Clay and his party had offered themselves as its 
peculiar friends, and were defeated ; but neither Jackson 
nor the greater part of his supporters had pretended 
to be hostile to protection. It was not till the next 
presidential campaign (that of 1832) that the national 
election was made a test as to the protective policy. 
That it was imprudent to risk so important a measure 
by carrying it before the people, there can be no doubt. 
But Mr. Clay had unbounded confidence in the discrim- 
ination and judgment of the people, and concluded that 
by making his elevation depend on the fate of a popular 
measure, the measure would receive no detriment, and 
his success be beyond a doubt. Mr. Clay had a noble 
ambition to become President. He looked upon the 
station as one that should be the reward for high merit 
and patriotic services. He would win it. He did not 
desire to worm himself into that, or any other office, by 
tortuous intrigues. He regarded the honor as the gift 



210 A HISTORY OF 

of the people ; and to the American people he addressed 
himself for its acquisition. He devoted himself to such 
measures as he deemed for the best interests of the 
country, and trusted that, as the people had their own 
welfare at heart, they would of course cherish and 
promote the statesman best able and most inclined to 
advance those interests. The American system was 
substantially Mr. Clay's ; that is, he had more assidu- 
ously advocated it than any other American. It was, 
perhaps, no more than just that he should endeavor to 
identify his hopes with the fate of a measure of his own 
construction, especially as he, as well as many other 
eminent statesmen, considered that the true interests of 
the country were involved in the fate of that measure. 
Mr. Clay was peculiarly situated. He was surrounded 
by competitors for the glorious station to which he 
aspired with an ambition as pure as ever fired a patriot's 
heart. Why should he not raise his eyes to that ex- 
alted position ? Would the proud honor be any the less 
grateful to him on account of his recollections of his 
humble origin — of the days of his orphanage and des- 
titution ? But to gain that elevated seat, — the pres- 
idency of the United States, — Mr. Clay could not, 
without a radical change of his nature, resort to any 
but the most honorable means. No one sooner than he 
saw the nascent popularity of General Jackson. In 
1825, when, as a member from Kentucky, hie sustained 
Mr. Adams (in the House) for the presidency, he acted 
in defiance of the instructions of his state, because he 
conceived that his duty required him so to do. Jackson 
and Clay did not differ at that time in politics, and the 
latter had not a few intimations, if not direct offers, 
of advancement, if he would consent to throw his 



THE WHIG PARTY. 211 

influence for the general. But his nobler impulses 
forbade. His spirit was too proud to suffer him to glide 
into so high an office by clinging. to the skirts of one 
whom he regarded as, in every essential qualification for 
such office, very much his inferior. The result was that 
those who were willing to sail under Jackson's colors 
triumphed in their ambitious schemes, while those who 
presumed to question the correctness of his administra- 
tion were doomed to disappointment and humbler sta- 
tions. Mr. Webster, likewise, had a lofty ambition for 
the presidency ; but his was not an ambition which, 
like that attributed to Van Buren, would drive him 
into intrigues ; nor was it one, like Clay's, that would 
impel him to exertions calculated to lead the people to 
his standard. Mr. Webster was better constituted by 
nature, better fitted by education and training, and 
better adapted by his moral and mental qualifications, 
for the presidency of this Union, than any man, with the 
exception of Washington, that has ever yet filled the 
presidential chair. The neglect of the country to place 
him in that office was the country's loss. But, although 
the first of American statesmen, Mr. Webster was never 
a politician. He ever acted on the principle that the 
officer, and not the office, should be sought. 

In the struggle for ascendency, General Jackson was 
by no means guilty of negligence, or want of vigilance. 
He had been a military captain, and understood some- 
thing of fortification. At the outset, he commenced 
with the precaution of keeping none but true friends on 
guard ; and all his office-holders became, under the dis- 
cipline they received from the heads of departments, 
faithful minute-men. Calhoun was sacrificed, leaving, 
of his own political organization, but one eminent states- 
19 



212 A HISTORY OF 

man, and that one content, and probably pledged, to 
await the proper time for successorship. An organ, 
also, was established at head-quarters, to promulgate 
the faith, and fulminate anathemas upon the unfaithful. 
That organ was the Washington Globe, edited by 
Francis Blair. Although a popular man, and strongly 
entrenched in the hearts of his countrymen, General 
Jackson found that attention to his party was necessary. 
He saw that a powerful array of talent was uniting 
against his administration, and that some vigilance was 
indispensably requisite. 

The Whigs, or National Republicans, as then called, 
held their convention at Baltimore as early as December, 
1831,. 'to nominate candidates for President and Vice- 
President, for the November election of 1832. The 
delegates at that convention adopted a party platform, 
among other measures, putting forth the Bank, Tariff 
and Internal Improvements. Some of these measures 
had incurred the opposition of the President already, 
and the election which came off in '32 was considered 
decisive as to the fate of the whole of them, so far as 
the popular voice could be indicated by an election. At 
that convention Henry Clay was nominated for Presi- 
dent, and John Sargent, of Pennsylvania, for Vice- 
President. 

Early in 1832 the campaign opened with much vigor. 
The long term of Congress was in session, and was 
somewhat made use of for electioneering purposes. It 
was important that the members of Congress should by 
their action be made to signify their position in regard 
to important questions ; and if, by fair and honorable 
tactics, leading statesmen should be driven to an exposi- 
tion of their principles, the state could not be said to 



THE WHIG PARTY. 213 

receive any injury, even if it was not benefited by the 
operation. Party leaders have always claimed the right 
of thus forcing issues upon their adversaries, and this 
Clay did in that Congress with wonderful effect. The 
United States Bank had long been, like Hamlet's ghost, 
a questionable monster ; and Jackson, in his patriotic 
resolve, at the commencement of his career, to restore 
the pure principles of Jefferson's administration, had 
signified his hostility to it, and expressed his opposition 
to its receiving a new charter. The first United States 
Bank received its charter under Washington's adminis- 
tration, in 1*791. Washington's cabinet was divided 
upon the question of its policy and constitutionality — 
Hamilton being in favor of, and Jefferson opposed to, 
the institution. The first charter expired in 1811, dur- 
ing the administration of Mr. Madison ; and the prev- 
alence of the original Republican sentiments at that 
time prevented its renewal. The war with England 
ensued, from which the country emerged much crippled 
in its finances, and embarrassed in its exchanges. Repub- 
licanism became universal, and a new set of statesmen 
were in the halls of the national legislature. The ques- 
tion was discussed in regard to its merits as a measure 
for improving the currency, and without regard to party 
tenets ; and the result was the granting of a new 
charter, during the last year of Mr. Madison's term 
(1816), which was to run twenty years. This charter 
would expire, of course, in 1836. The passage of an 
act granting a renewal of that charter was not neces- 
sary before 1834 or 1835; but the Whigs saw fit to 
bring forward the subject early in 1832. It was well 
known that there were many Democrats in Congress 
who would support an act for the recharter of the Bank, 



214 A HISTORY OF 

and the Whigs thought it advisable to commit them to 
the measure, and then force Jackson to an acquiescence, 
or array against him that part of the Democracy which 
was in its favor. Accordingly, early in July, a new char- 
ter for the United States Bank passed both houses, and 
promptly received President Jackson's veto. The United 
States Bank had really grown up to be something of a 
monster, so far as its power was concerned, and its life 
was not to be yielded up without a struggle. When 
its various branches in different parts of the country 
are considered ; and when we recollect the numbers of 
wealthy and influential men, directly and indirectly inter- 
ested in its existence ; when the vast amount of its capi- 
tal, the enhanced value of its stock, the profits of its 
dividends, the great numbers of its officers and attaches, 
and its intimate connection with the business of the 
country, are all brought to mind, we shall not be sur- 
prised at the great excitement occasioned by the Presi- 
dent's veto of the new charter. 

The utility of the Bank as an instrument for the 
collection of the revenue was manifest ; and, as a regu- 
lator of the currency, and a medium of exchanges, it 
was. thought highly necessary, if not absolutely indis- 
pensable. The power of Congress to establish a Bank 
had been canvassed by political theorists from the foun- 
dation of the government ; and long prior to Jackson's 
election to the presidency, not only had the United 
States Supreme Court virtually settled the question of 
its constitutionality, but the ablest Democratic states- 
men had yielded all scruple in regard to that question; 
Some statesmen had located the power to establish a 
Bank in that section of the Constitution which author- 
izes Congress to regulate the currency. But almost 



THE WHIG PARTY. 215 

every statesman had come to the conclusion that a Bank 
was necessary as a means of carrying into effect the 
general provisions of the Constitution, by which the 
government is established. That the most powerful, 
and most rapidly growing government on earth had 
not power to establish a Bank for its own convenience, 
as an instrument for the transaction of its extensive 
and varied fiscal operations, such as the collecting and 
disbursing, annually, about a hundred millions of dol- 
lars, — and these operations, not limited to this continent, 
but requiring the transmission and disbursement of funds 
throughout all parts of the habitable globe, — seemed 
to every reflecting man, to every reasonable person who 
could consider the question with unprejudiced mind, as 
absolutely absurd and ridiculous. The constitutional 
power of Congress to establish a Bank cannot admit of 
much question ; but the expediency of such an estab- 
lishment, though a branch of the constitutional, is in 
reality, the only question in the matter. Though in 
many respects highly valuable and useful, it was urged 
that the United States Bank system was fraught with 
evils. The enemies of that system brought against the 
Bank every charge imaginable. Horrible frauds were 
charged upon it. It was alleged that it had exercised 
favoritism ; that it had, by expansions and contractions, 
encouraged speculations in produce and other property: 
that its officers had themselves made use of the institu- 
tion for cotton and other speculations ; and, worse than 
all, it was alleged that the whole establishment was a 
busy and powerful electioneering concern. How much 
truth there was in these charges it is unimportant now 
to inquire ; but, nevertheless, it seems as though our 
government ought to have wisdom enough to establish 
19* 



216 A HISTORY OF 

a moneyed institution, based upon the government funds 
or securities, that would be free from the objections 
charged upon the monster beheaded by Jackson. The 
specie, sometimes amounting to many millions, locked 
up in the government vaults, ought to be represented 
in the business channels of the country. The loss of 
just such a medium as the government might gratuit- 
ously and without inconvenience give to the country, is 
a pure sacrifice upon the altar of party prejudice and 
folly. In a country like this, — where the undeveloped 
wealth is millions and millions of times greater than the 
developed, and where capital bears no proportion to the 
country's resources, — it is certainly suicidal to adopt and 
persist in a system which takes from business a part of 
its limited capital. The government might supply, to a 
proper extent, a circulating paper currency, which would 
not only facilitate exchanges, but likewise to some extent 
equalize the rate of interest, useful everywhere, and 
shedding untold blessings upon the border states. 

But the veto of the Bank charter so early in 1832 
brought the whole question fully into the campaign of 
that year. Everything that well could have been said 
upon the subject of currency was urged by Clay and 
Webster, and by thousands of others, statesmen and 
editors, in all parts of the country. The veto detached 
many leading and influential men, in various sections of 
the land, from the support of Jackson. The storm of 
abuse that burst upon him was terrific. He was de- 
nounced as a tyrant. At the capitol, and at the most 
business points throughout the country, the scolders 
seemed to be largely in the ascendency. Judging from 
the declamation, and the tone of the press, one would 
suppose an entire revolution in public sentiment had 



THE WHIG PARTY. 2 IT 

taken place. But during this dark hour it was said 
that the old hero — as the President was usually called 
— remained unmoved, and expressed unshaken confi- 
dence that the people would sustain him. And in this 
he was not mistaken. His knowledge of human nature 
was superior, as it turned out, to that of any of his 
competitors. The storm of indignation raised by bank 
capitalists, speculators, merchants, and manufacturers, 
redounded upon the heads of his opponents. The peo- 
ple only saw a fierce conflict between their beloved hero 
and a moneyed aristocracy. They saw him assailec 1 
by the champions of privilege, the advocates of banks 
and other corporations, and the old general became 
dearer to them than ever. That his enemies were loud 
in praise of a tariff was enough to excite the jealousy 
and hostility of the populace against that measure. The 
second election of General Jackson was more triumph- 
ant than the first. His administration was endorsed by 
the people, and his opponents rebuked in a terrible 
manner. Out of two hundred and eighty-six votes, Jack- 
son received two hundred and nineteen ; Henry Clay 
forty-nine ; John Floyd eleven ; and William Wirt seven. 
The votes for Floyd, a Virginia ex-governor, were cast 
by South Carolina ; and the seven cast for Mr. Wirt 
were cast by Vermont, which was at the time uncom- 
monly exercised by the masonic question. Mr. Van 
Buren was elected Vice-President by one hundred and 
eighty-nine out of two hundred and eighty-six votes. 
Pennsylvania cast her votes for Jackson, but repudiated 
Van Buren. The rejection of Mr. Van Buren's appoint- 
ment as Minister to England, if prompted by political 
considerations, proved not»to be productive of very 
valuable results to the leaders of the movement. 



218 A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER XXI. 

SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICATION ORDINANCE. — THE HIGHER-LAW FANAT- 
ICISM OF SOUTH CAROLINA CONSIDERED. THE RESOLUTION OF A PEO- 
PLE TO RESIST A. LAW OF THE LAND AN EVIDENCE OF THE WANT OF A 
CHRISTIAN SPIRIT. THE APPROVAL OF THE INDIVIDUAL NOT NECES- 
SARY TO RENDER A LAW BINDING ON HIS CONSCIENCE. EXEMPTION 

FROM THE FORCE OF THE LAWS OF SOCIETY BY APPEAL TO HIGHER 
LAWS A BADGE OF PAGANISM. — THE AMERICAN DOCTRINE, ETC., ETC. 

The vote of South Carolina, at the election of 1832, 
was cast for William Floyd. Her politics were greatly 
perturbed. The modification of the tariff by the act of 
1832 had not been satisfactory. The result of the presi- 
dential election, although it had virtually settled the 
tariff question favorably for the South, did not arrest 
the course of the nullifiers, but immediately after that 
election, to wit, on the twenty-fourth day of Novem- 
ber, appeared the celebrated ordinance of nullification. 
When everything is considered, perhaps it will be thought 
that there was nothing remarkably strange in the course 
taken by the disaffected Carolinians. The philosophic 
reader will see in their performances but a repetition 
of one of the most common phases of human nature. It 
should be constantly borne in mind that for several 
years the people of that spirited state had labored un- 
der the belief that they were the victims of unconsti- 
tutional legislation — that they were plundered to enrich 
other sections of the country. Such thoughts would 
not be comfortable to the*coolest-tempered people in 
the world ; and having been for a long time entertained 



THE WHIG PARTY. 219 

by, the Carolinians, the result could hardly be consid- 
ered surprising. People in such a situation should not 
be expected to construe the Constitution with the im- 
partiality of a disinterested spectator. Their case is 
daily seen everywhere. The opposite litigants in a law- 
suit are equally confident of their respective construc- 
tions of a statute, as passion ever affords a medium for 
vision that never illuminates but one side of the ques- 
tion. Such an exciting agitation could not for a long 
time continue without leading to ultraism — without 
engendering fanaticism. When a people imagine them- 
selves the subjects of oppression, and this conviction is 
continued for any length of time, it would be strange 
indeed if their feelings and measures, should be pre- 
cisely adjusted to the necessities of their redress of 
grievances. This would not be natural. Reason, it is 
true, is the highest of human faculties ; but it would 
accomplish but little without the aid of passion. Like 
a pent-up river, the longer the passions are obstructed, 
the more they accumulate, until at last no barrier will 
restrain them. One-idea people, as they are called, are 
fearful folks. Whether that one idea be a wrong of 
their own, or of a fellow-being, makes but slight differ- 
ence ; for, if we adopt a neighbor's quarrel, we in effect 
make it our own. But Carolina was aroused for her 
own rights, and little did her sons stop to calculate their 
strength, or to consider the consequences. What though 
the whole Union, with an efficient army and navy, stood 
arrayed against them? What though the President 
thought them in the wrong, and was resolved to exe- 
cute the act of Congress which was so odious and hate- 
ful ? What though every statesman and- jurist in the 
land had held such acts, as the one in question, consti- 



220 A HISTORY OP 

tional ? What though Congress, and all the heads of 
the departments, were of the opinion that the people of 
South Carolina were carried away by a fanatical hatred 
of a law that was not only constitutional, but perhaps 
useful and necessary for the whole country? What 
though the duty of the Carolinians, if dissatisfied with 
an act of Congress, was plainly pointed out in the Con- 
stitution ? Fanaticism was never awed or moved by 
such considerations. The tariff was thought unconsti- 
tutional — oppressive — a blow at the liberties of the 
South. Constitutional remedies could not be thought 
of. Every heart was inspired with a higher law. The 
disaffected with one voice resolved that the odious act 
should not be executed. They could not conceive it 
possible for them to be in an error ; their reason told 
them that the law was a nullity ; the promptings of their 
consciences, which they could not disobey, taught them 
that obedience would be degradation, and morally infa- 
mous. There are no people on earth that are without 
a God, or destitute of consciences. The people of South 
Carolina, although nullifiers and slave-holders, are not, 
probably, formed much differently from those of the 
North. They are of the same race, possessing the same 
moral, intellectual, and physical faculties that distin- 
guish their Anglo-American brothers in other parts of 
the country. Travellers give excellent accounts of their 
characters, representing the Carolinians as a high- 
minded, generous, virtuous, and, in every respect, an 
estimable people. Particular and minute accounts are 
given by some travellers, showing them possessed of 
really lovely traits of character, and truly eminent for 
the Christian graces. And this is no doubt so. The 
more we look into the character of our Southern friends, 



THE WHIG PARTY. 221 

the more, no doubt, we shall be charmed with their 
good qualities. But this charitable view.is, nevertheless, 
only found behind the record. We should not be allowed, 
prima facie, to accord to South Carolina so good a char- 
acter. We could not suppose that a people who had 
arrayed themselves against a law of Congress, taken 
redress into their own hands, and refused to submit to 
the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, were Christians ; that is, true followers of Christ, 
and governed by his precepts and example. The Caro- 
linians pronounced a law of the general government 
unrighteous ahd oppressive, and claimed that it was 
not binding upon their consciences ! They scouted at 
the idea of resisting that law from pecuniary considera- 
tions ; they were impelled to resistance by conscience, 
which could not be bound by an unjust enactment. 
Here was their fatal error — their departure from Chris- 
tian duty. Their Saviour, who was no less, in effect, 
than the Deity himself, held the laws of bloody Tiberius 
binding upon his conscience ; and these were the laws 
of a black-hearted despot. Then whence the author- 
ity for the American doctrine, that an unjust or un- 
righteous law is not binding on the citizen's conscience? 
Is it not strange that people, enjoying the most equal 
and just government that ever existed on earth, should 
assume {hat the acts of the legislature are no further 
binding upon their consciences than in accordance with 
their conceptions of right or wrong ? A grosser delu- 
sion than the theory that each individual must test the 
obligatory force of a law by the dictates of his own con 
science, never existed in this republic. Conscience, if 
exalted to such an imperial position, would rule the 
land with many conflicting laws. What this sovereign 



222 A HISTORY OF 

would establish as right in one heart, it would proscribe 
as infamous in another. Judging by experience and 
observation, we should suppose conscience to be, not 
an intellectual faculty, but a moral sentiment, ever 
dependent for its guidance upon the intellect. And the 
fallibility of the human intellect ought not to be doubted, 
and was not, by the framers of our government. • The 
fact was recognized that men would differ, in their ideas 
of right and wrong, about many things ; and if all 
government, saving the immemorial and ordinary one 
of military despotism, had been postponed until all 
minds should become impressed with the same ideas, 
and the same sentiments should reign in all hearts, it is 
quite clear that our republic would never have been 
established. 

The Constitution was a series of concessions and 
compromises. The government was instituted on the 
principle that full, complete and entire obedience, in all 
time to come, to the enactments of Congress, should, as 
a compromise, be sacredly observed. The legislative 
power, it was expected, might frequently act contrary 
to the ideas of considerable portions of the people ; but 
the solemn pledge and oath of every citizen demand 
a faithful regard and observance of all legislative enact- 
ments. As no man can positively say that his mental 
powers are perfect ; as no one can say that be is infal- 
lible ; as weakness, imperfection and error, are acknowl- 
edged by Christians to be the attributes of every soul ; 
as, if universal consent were required as necessary to 
make a law obligatory on all, no government nor laws 
could ever be made ; it should be considered nothing 
humiliating, dangerous nor wrong, for the most eminent 
and godly men to submit their consciences to the arbit- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 223 

rament of the highest authority the state can provide. 
Supposing that, prior to the legislative act, a radical 
difference of opinion had existed ? And supposing 
that, after the enactment, the dubious citizen cannot 
bring his mind to concur with the opinion of the legis- 
lators, shall he therefore assume that the law has no 
binding force upon his conscience ? That, because he 
has not the same light that illuminates the legislators, 
he is under no obligation to regard their acts ? Such, 
in effect, is the doctrine of those who profess to owe 
allegiance to a law higher than the state. That such 
views in a Protestant country should obtain any cur- 
rency would be strange. Romanism has ever been 
charged with raising, and assuming to raise, its head 
above the temporal power ; and the presumption of the 
priesthood, in holding allegiance to a power superior to 
the state, has ever been violently denounced by the 
opponents of that sect. And it really seems a power- 
ful objection to that religion, if its priests really do 
claim to owe allegiance to a head that claims the right 
of testing legislative acts by a higher law, before they 
shall become binding upon the consciences of its fol- 
lowers. Such doctrines can only be tolerated by the 
benighted subjects of a priesthood. They are the same 
that for ages have bound the inhabitants of the earth in 
blind idolatry, and nourished the despotisms which have 
ground the masses of mankind into the dust. In the 
East, from ages remote, the civil magistrate has been 
subordinate to the priests of Brahma, Juggernaut, or 
some other all-powerful god. In Greece and Rome 
the priest of Jupiter was more regarded than the 
decrees of senates. In the modern states of Europe 
the Pope's ancient temporal power has been divided 
20 



224 A HISTORY OF 

amongst the prevailing monarchies. Formerly European 
kings reigned subject to the supervision and control of 
the man of God, whose higher law could dethrone and 
crown them at pleasure ; but in modern days kingcraft 
has swallowed up priestcraft, and it is only by virtue of 
the divinity which modern monarchs have ravished from 
the See of Rome that kings claim and are believed to 
reign by " divine right." But America, the world 
supposes, has never imported to her shores any of the 
craft of kings and priests that has enslaved mankind 
since the creation. Our government was formed on the 
theory that it was to be purely a government of men. 
Such a thing as a divine interpreter of the will of the 
Deity was not thought of. The people recognized, in 
the formation of their institutions, no power but that 
which emanated from, and centred in, themselves. 
They contemplated no government that should ever 
recognize or be in subjection to an order of men claiming 
allegiance to higher powers, or charged with duties in- 
compatible with an observance of the laws of the state. 
In the construction of this government, no state was 
more prominent than South Carolina, and her patriots 
and statesmen ranked with the first in America. Their 
vigilance, their caution, and their wisdom, are embodied 
in our Constitution. It is the legacy of the great and 
good men of their day, and is the proudest monument 
that could be erected to their memory ; and we never 
look at or think of that glorious instrument without 
bringing to mind those immortal men by whom it was 
formed. Should it endure ten thousand years, it could 
not outlive their memory and glory. As its destruction 
would be the overthrow of the most durable monument 
that can keep in remembrance and love the great states- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 225 

men that formed it, its preservation should be passion- 
ately desired by every American who has any regard 
for the glory of his ancestors. The government left to 
us by those ancestors is no despotism. It is based upon 
the principle of self-government, and substitutes the 
will of the people, lawfully expressed, for the rule of a 
hereditary aristocracy, and a priesthood. Every guard 
against unjust laws is provided that it was possible to 
provide. Laws must be passed by a majority of the 
direct representatives ; then by a majority of the Sen- 
ate ; and, finally, be approved by the President, and by 
him signed, before they become obligatory. Thinking 
that, even with all these deliberate steps in the enact- 
ment of laws, some unconstitutional ones might occa- 
sionally be made, another department of government 
was established, with full power to revise and pass 
upon all legislative acts. A judiciary, composed of 
learned, independent and disinterested judges, was 
provided, before which any law of Congress may be 
brought, by proper steps, for adjudication. And here 
all resorts against a law of the land must end. Good 
or bad, just or unjust, constitutional or unconstitutional, 
in the eyes of a citizen, after an act has been passed 
through all the regular forms, and adjudicated by the 
Supreme Court of the United States to be in accordance 
with the Constitution, it is, and must remain, until that 
adjudication be reversed, an obligatory law. There is 
no duty to a higher law that will absolve the citizen's 
conscience from its observance. If his wisdom and 
feelings distrust the correctness of the law, it is proper 
for him to agitate its repeal, or try it by all constitu- 
tional remedies and tests ; but to undertake to oppose 
or thwart its execution, renders him a traitor ; and to 



226 A HISTORY OF 

deny its obligatory force on his conscience, and refuse 
to execute it, is to incur the guilt of perjury. 

South Carolina refused to resort to the United States 
Supreme Court for redress. In this she was governed by 
passion. She seemed to distrust that tribunal. She sup- 
posed that, as the Northern, Middle and Western States 
were all favorable to the system of protection, a major- 
ity of the judges would be opposed to her. However, 
her leaders were high-minded men ; and, although they 
distrusted the impartiality of the national tribunal, they 
had the decency to observe towards it a respectful 
bearing, and made no efforts to bring it into contempt, 
break it down, and destroy its authority with the 
people. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 227 



CHAPTER XXII. 

SOUTH CAROLINA ORDINANCE TOO LATE. — THE FATE OP THE TARIFFS 

SETTLED BY THE ELECTION. JACKSON 'S COURSE IN REGARD TO SOUTH 

CAROLINA. SUSTAINED BY WEBSTER. COURSE OF CALHOUN. 

COMPROMISE ACT. REVOLUTION OF MEASURES DURING JACKSON 'S 

ADMINISTRATION. HIS ADMINISTRATION FURTHER CONSIDERED. 

THIS COUNTRY NO FOREIGN OR DOMESTIC POLICY. TRUE POLICY FOR 

US. EXCESS OF IMPORTS AND EFFECT. COMMERCE WITHOUT MANU- 
FACTURES WILL EXHAUST THE COUNTRY. WITHOUT THE LABOR 

EMPLOYED ON THE RAW MATERIAL OBTAINED FROM THE UNITED 

STATES, BRITISH COMMERCE WOULD BE COMPARATIVELY SMALL. 

FOLLY OF EXPORTING OUR RAW MATERIAL TO BUILD UP A RIVAL, 
WHEN IT MIGHT GIVE AMERICA THE MONOPOLY OF THE COMMERCE OF 

THE WORLD. BRITISH SYSTEM. HER AMBITION TO PRODUCE THE 

RAW MATERIAL. THE INSANE IDEA OF THE SOUTH THAT ENGLAND 

IS TO BE HER ONLY MARKET FOR COTTOD. SUICIDAL TO THE COUNTRY, 
ETC. 

The people of South Carolina, in convention at Co- 
lumbia, on the twenty-fourth of November issued their 
ordinance of nullification, declaring all the acts of Con- 
gress, then in force, laying duties on foreign importa- 
tions, unconstitutional, null and void, and of no binding 
effect on the citizens of that state. The ordinance 
further ordered that it should not be lawful for the 
authorities of that state, nor of the United States in 
that state, to enforce the provisions of those revenue 
acts. It also further ordained, among other things, 
that there should be no appeal from the state to the 
United States court, on any question involving the 
legality of these acts, and provided that if the United 
20* 



J 



228 A HISTORY OF 

States government should attempt to coerce the state 
into submission, it would secede from the Union, and 
form itself into an independent government. This ordi- 
nance was by its terms to take effect on the first day of 
the ensuing February. 

But the ordinance of Carolina came too late. There 
was a moment when, perhaps, this step would have 
occasioned demonstrations, to some extent, in other 
Southern States, as the protective system had many 
enemies in that section of the country. Two things 
had occurred to injure this movement of Carolina ; 
namely, the speech of Mr. Webster in reply to Colonel 
Hayne, in 1830, which had demonstrated that forcible 
resistance to a law of the United States is treason ; and 
the then recent presidential election, which was consid- 
ered a popular verdict against the American system. 
The ominous cloud raised by the first breath of nullifi- 
cation had been dispelled. The powerful speech of Mr. 
Webster found a ready response in the American heart 
everywhere, and was as cordially received by an en- 
lightened and patriotic minority in South Carolina as 
anywhere else. The union sentiment was all-pervading 
and powerful ; and, after that able performance of Mr. 
Webster, in which he riddled to atoms the web of 
higher-law nullification sophistry, went forth to the 
country, no one saw any worse event of the South 
Carolina movement than a disgraceful retreat, or a 
tremendous flogging of the nullifiers. 

Many doubted General Jackson's political wisdom, 
and thought his administration, in many respects, a blun- 
der ; but no one questioned his high-toned patriotism. 
To him the conduct of South Carolina looked exceed- 
ingly childish. That the people of that state could 



THE WHIG PARTY. 229 

successfully resist the general government, or subvert 
the laws of the land, scarcely occurred to the President. 
He had no doubt but he could execute the trust reposed 
in him by the American people ; and he had no idea of 
attempting to escape from the duties of that trust. 
The nfenacing attitude of Carolina looked to him like a 
farce. All remember his kind, conciliating, but able, 
firm and dignified, proclamation to the people of that 
state. This was issued December the tenth. It took 
the same ground, and made use of the same arguments, 
advanced by Webster, in his celebrated Hayne speech. 
And he gave the people of South Carolina to understand 
distinctly that the laws of the United States govern- 
ment should be executed. The excitement among the 
nullifiers, however, was not mitigated by the Presi- 
dent's proclamation, but rather aggravated. The state 
began to put herself into a hostile attitude ; to organize 
a military force, supply herself with the munitions of 
war, &c. But the end of that controversy is familiar 
to all. The recent election had called for a reduction 
of the tariff, and, with that reduction, as by a parachute, 
South Carolina was let down from the precipice over 
which she was hanging. The leading nullifiers, how- 
ever, had some little occasion for serious reflection 
before the issue of their troubles. President Jackson's 
character was well known, and it was found that he 
was not disposed to trifle with those who had put at 
defiance a law which duty and honor called upon him 
to execute. He began to take careful and system- 
atic steps in the business, and, if it had been necessary 
for blood to flow, the example which he would have 
made of the leaders of so daring a resistance to the 
government would have been a warning to nullifiers for 



230 A HISTORY OF 

ages. In President Jackson's movements in the prem- 
ises, he received, and, it is said, solicited, the aid 
of Mr. Webster. The Force Bill recommended by the 
President, was sustained by Mr. Webster in the Senate. 
Mr. Calhoun threw into the controversy all his powers. 
His famous nullification resolutions were introduced 
about the middle of February, and his speech upon 
them was the ablest he ever made. Mr. Webster re- 
plied to him in full, and, with overwhelming force, 
demolished the whole citadel of nullification, so that not 
a respectable fragment remains to adorn the antiqua- 
rian's cabinet. 

But with the ruin of the South Carolina doctrine of 
states' rights and higher laws, came another ruin, 
whose wrecks, relics, and fragments, are abundantly 
numerous. These ruins were cotemporary, but not 
necessarily connected with and dependent ' on each 
other. With the ruin of nullification expired the pro- 
jective system which had existed from 1816. Mr. Clay 
was the parent and protector of that system, and was 
at this time seriously alarmed for its safety. A presi- 
dential election had just taken place, bringing with it 
the election of a new Congress, and the principles of 
free trade had triumphed. The present Congress was 
friendly to his system ; but he saw that the next one 
would be its enemy. Mr. Verplank had introduced 
a bill entirely destroying the protective system ; but 
although it was not apprehended that this bill would 
meet with success at that session, the success of it at 
the next seemed certain. Mr. Clay was justly alarmed. 
Under the protective acts of 1816, 1824, and 1828, 
millions of dollars had been invested in manufacturing 
establishments, which, by the sudden repeal of those 



THE WHIG PARTY. 231 

acts, would be a total sacrifice ; and the voice of the 
American people, as indicated by the late election, 
demanded the repeal. In this emergency Mr. Clay 
brought forward his compromise. He offered it as an 
amendment to Mr. Verplank's bill. The measure pro- 
vided for a gradual reduction of the rate of duties for 
ten years, at the expiration of which time (1842) there 
would remain only a horizontal revenue duty of twenty 
per cent. By this compromise, the change from the pro- 
tective to the revenue system would be gradual, and 
those having capital invested in manufacturing estab- 
lishments be able to take care of themselves. Mr. 
Calhoun and his friends embraced the overture as satis- 
factory. It readily passed, and put an end to the 
famous South Carolina difficulty. 

Without dwelling upon those familiar acts of Jack- 
son's administration, such as the veto of internal 
improvement bills, the veto of the bill to charter the 
United States Bank, the removal of the deposits from 
the old bank, and placing them in the state banks, it 
may in brief be said that, during his administration, the 
leading principles of our national policy underwent an 
entire retrograde revolution. The elevation of Jackson 
was effected in opposition to the views and feelings of 
the greatest statesmen of the Democratic party ; in con- 
sequence of which, as already seen, that party was 
dismembered, and old and well tried Madisonian Demo- 
crats united themselves with the new-born party, which 
finally went by the name of Whig. The Democratic 
statesmen, who refused to follow the fortunes of Jack 
son's political camp, adhered to the principles and meas 
ures of Madison and Monroe ; and the President, to im- 
press his Democracy upon the people, and to show 



232 A HISTORY OF 

himself sounder than any of his opponents, professed, 
as parties since his days have done, to restore the prin- 
ciples of Jefferson in their purit} 7- . Experience was val- 
ued as nothing. The name of Jefferson was at that 
day potent with the people. He was recognized as 
the founder of Democracy, and hailed as one of the 
first of the statesmen and patriots of the Kevolution. 
His ability was not to be doubted. He was well read, 
and profound, — was well acquainted with constitutions 
and the governments of nations. But, at the outset of 
our government, Mr. Jefferson made many suggestions, 
as to the measures of domestic policy, which time and 
experience showed to be impracticable, or not profitable. 
In fact he lived to acknowledge his mistakes in regard 
to many measures ; but no one, on account of this, 
thought any the less of his wisdom and patriotism. 
No one, without trial, could have foreseen exactly what 
policy in every respect was to be best suited to a young 
country just starting into existence like this. However, 
nearly forty years' experience had, it was thought, de- 
monstrated the prudence if not necessity of certain meas- 
ures ; and when Jackson proposed to ignore this experi- 
ence, and disclaim the wisdom which unwearied research, 
discussion and observation, had taught such men as 
Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Henry Clay, Calhoun, 
Crawford, Loundes, Cheeves, and many more, all Jeffer- 
sonian Democrats, it was not strange that the most 
intelligent statesmen of the country should oppose him. 
But there was no remedy for the mistake of his eleva- 
tion and rule : he was not a man that could come into 
power under the lead of experienced and able states- 
men, and subject himself to their advice and guidance. 
He must command, or have no part in the councils of the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 233 

nation. It is true, he was dependent on subordinates 
for light and direction in many things ; but these subor- 
dinates never presumed to offer him advice and counsel : 
they had the address to discover, as by intuition, the 
opinion and judgment of their chief on important 
measures, and simply limited themselves to an humble 
approbation of the same. The courage, the independ- 
ence of mind, the resolution, and the decision of char- 
acter of General Jackson, were as well known as his 
name. But for all this, when measures dictated by the 
abstruse principles of political ecouomy were to be 
adopted, he could not be otherwise than dependent on 
others ; and of the correctness of the opinions of such 
others as he might repose confidence in, how could he 
possibly judge ? The best statesmen of the day were 
in the opposition. He would not have placed inferior 
men in his cabinet, had he not been compelled by neces- 
sity to do so. That he would have been proud to have 
Clay or Webster in his cabinet, no one can doubt. But 
the politicians on whom he was forced to recline were 
emphatically adventurers. They were ambitious of ad- 
vancement, and were laboring for a dynasty for them- 
selves. Well tried and approved Democratic principles, 
embraced by their distinguished opponents, were to be 
put down, and new ones established, or, after the retire- 
ment of Jackson, they would have no claim themselves 
upon the country for elevation. It therefore became an 
imperative necessity for them to establish a new sys- 
tem of national policy ; and this, as we have seen, was 
done. 

President Jackson commenced his administration when 
the country was under the full tide of experiment in the 
principles of Madison, Monroe and Adams. Our for- 



234 A HISTORY OF 

eign and domestic policy was that established under 
these presidents. The country was at the height of its 
prosperity as Jackson entered the presidential chair, 
and his term of administration seemed just long enough 
to work an entire revolution of the measures of his 
predecessors. The consequences of his acts were pre- 
dicted ; and if they fell as a legacy to his succes- 
sor, it may be said, in the figure of the poet, that 
they were visitations to "plague the inventor." The 
grounds on which all his changes of policy were made 
were theoretical. There was at the time no occasion 
for complaint that the country was not prosperous and 
happy, as the prosperity of that day has not been 
exceeded. This the President acknowledged. The 
country had at previous periods passed through revul- 
sions, panics, and all sorts of monetary distresses. The 
causes of such reverses and calamities had been exam- 
ined into carefully, and a course of policy adopted, as 
was thought, that would avert the future recurrence of 
such convulsions in the business of the country. But 
the muniments provided against these revulsions by the 
safest statesmen, considering their experience as well 
as ability, that our country has produced, were all swept 
away by the administration of Jackson ; and the inse- 
curity for which our business and monetary systems 
were noted in early times has continued to the present 
day. The fact is, we are a country without any policy 
at all, either foreign or domestic ; we are at the mercy 
of the world, and are only kept from bankruptcy by an 
uncommon run of good fortune. With natural advan- 
tages only equal to other countries, we should long ago 
have been in the abyss of destitution and poverty. But 
to acquire our new lands, the millions of men and gold 



THE WHIG PARTY. 235 

from Europe are constantly pouring in upon us, and, afs 
if to compensate us for our want of wisdom and fore- 
sight, some good-natured deity has thrown into our lap 
rich treasures of the precious metal. With these provi- 
dential advantages, we can nearly keep clear from debt 
to foreign nations, but not quite. The day is at hand 
when our prosperity will depend more on our principles 
of economy than it has heretofore, and when nothing 
but attention to those principles will save us from the 
wretchedness of worse than colonial serfdom. 

The resolution and fierceness with which General 
Jackson placed his foot upon that monster, the United 
States Bank, has been recited and sung for years. 
But the currency question is not one that can well be 
considered by itself. The interests of agriculture, 
manufactures and commerce, are so blended with the 
question of currency, that the latter cannot well 
be detached from the others and viewed separately. 
The currency is not properly speaking an interest ; it 
is an instrument. Prosperity is less dependent on it 
than on the substantial interests of the country. With- 
out this instrument of course there could be no busi- 
ness. It is to the community and the world what the 
blood is to the human body. It is a medium for the 
transmission of nutriment to all parts of the system, 
and indispensable to all growth or increase. 

If the farmer would stretch out his mind from the 
limits of his farm to the bounds of his country, and 
look upon that country as a great family, to be provided 
for, governed, and regulated, on such principles as each 
prudent family is controlled, he would at once become 
a political economist and statesman, and find no diffi- 
culty in determining what measures are indispensable 
21 



236 A HISTORY OF 

for the prosperity of the nation. Good common sense 
would be all that is requisite for a solution of the great 
questions that have so much agitated parties for years, 
if a person could only break through the mists that theo- 
rists and politicians have thrown over these subjects. 
; . As with the family, the nation that consumes or im- 
ports more than it produces is on the road to bank- 
ruptcy. A fortunate concurrence of circumstances may 
for a while keep its tottering head from beating the 
earth ; but, in the end, such a country must fall. I say 
tottering head, because our country is meant. These 
continually recurring monetary revulsions are but the 
too palpable effects of its crippled and debilitated 
faculties, showing that it is only with the utmost diffi- 
culty and pain that it can stagger along. This is the 
country, the improvident country, that has ever im- 
ported more than it has exported. The amount of the 
excess of imports over the exports is familiar to all who 
take the trouble to inspect the reports of the depart- 
ments. A glance at the figures will show what reason 
would have required us to expect. Passion and party 
frenzy may blind a man to obvious facts, or render him 
indifferent to things dimly seen through the mists of 
prejudice ; but every sensible and unbiassed mind will at 
once confess that a system which constantly exhausts, 
and never replenishes, our national resources, must be 
ruinous. Without going back further than to the admin- 
istration of Monroe, we see that the excess of our im- 
ports over exports — taking no notice of foreign goods 
exported included in the account — was, during his 
second term, upwards of $16,000,000. During J. Q. 
Adams's term, upwards of $17,500,000 ; during General 
Jackson's first term, about $35,000,000 ; and, during the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 237 

second term, upwards of $129,000,000. There has been 
scarcely a year since that the imports have not greatly 
exceeded our exports, and the aggregate of the excess 
of our imports from Jackson's to Buchanan's adminis- 
tration, must amount to several hundred millions of dol- 
lars. The excess of our importations during the last 
term of President Polk was upwards of $114,000,000, 
and the excess from 1847 to 185*7 is in round numbers 
upwards of $250,000,000 ! * 

The only substantial check ever attempted for these 

* An inspection of the tables annually presented by the Secretary 
of the Treasury will show the following astonishing facts. The specie 
imported during ten years, from 1847, immediately after the tariff of 
1840, to 1857, including those two years (fiscal years), 

was -..-'.. $84,208,989 

Export of specie and bullion during same period, 



Excess of exports over imports, . . . $258,853,228 

The total amount of imports of goods and specie 

during the same period was, . . . $2,506,350,318 

Exports, specie included, . . 2,512,129,741 

Leaving a balance of indebtedness, - $54,220,577 

Or thus : 

Imports, exclusive of specie from 1847 to 1857, $2,482,141,329 

Exports, exclusive of specie, " " " " 2,169,067,524 



Balance of trade against this country, . . $313,073,805 

What does this show but a clear loss to this country, in consequence 
of its want of policy, of upwards of three hundred millions of dollars? 
What a commentary on our national system ! We have cast the specie 
exports since the California mines commenced their produets, to show 
into whose pockets tbeir treasures find their way. The reader need 
not be told that this is all wrong ; that our commercial system should 
have been such as to have saved the products of our gold mines, 



238 



A HISTORY OF 



undue importations were the tariff enactments of 1828,, 
and 1842, and although they both produced marked 
effects, their continuance was too brief to mar the sym- 
metry of our studied system of folly and stupidity. 
Modern secretaries have struggled to obscure the re- 
turns of our custom-houses, and to break the effect of 
their prophetic balances. The exportation of gold has 
been charged in the accounts of our exports, to render 
our foreign trade apparently more equal ; and, in the 
imports of specie, the money brought by immigrants is 
alluded to as an item of importance, supposed to be 
large, but not to be stated ! The fact is, our position 
is a ruinous one, and every candid man must see that 
our policy must be changed, or our Californias, and 
other accidental resources, will not save us much longer 
from the gulf of ruin. 

and, instead of paying, to have received by foreign trade a balance 
of one or two hundred millions annually. 

EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES TO FOREIGN PORTS. 



Year 

ending 

June 30. 



1845... 
1846... 
1847... 
1848... 
1849... 
1850... 
1851... 
1852... 
1853... 
1854... 
1855.., 
1856.., 
1857... 
1858.. 



Domestic pro- 
duce. 



$ 98,455,330 
101,718,042 
150,574,844 
130,203,709 
131,710,081 
134,900,233 
173,620,138 
154,931,147 
189,869,162 
215,157,504 
192,751,135 
266,438,051 
278,906,713 
241,351,033 



Foreign pro- 
duce. 



fi 7,584,781 

7,865,206 

6,166,754 

7,986,806 

8,641,091 

9,475,493 

10,295,121 

12,037,043 

13,096,213 

21,661,137 

26,158,368 

14,781,372 

14,917,047 

20,660,241 



Specie and 
bullion. 



$8,606,495 

3,905,268 

1,907,024 

15,841,616 

5,404,648 

7,522,994 

29,472,752 

42,674,135 

27,486,875 

41,422,423 

56,247,343 

45,745,485 

69,136,922 

52,633,147 



Total exports. 



$114,646,606 
113,488,516 
158,648,622 
154,032,131 
145,755,820 
151,898,720 
218,388,011 
209,642,325 
230,452,250 
278,241,064 
275,156,846 
326,964,908 
362,960,682 
324,644,421 



THE WHIG PARTY. 



239 



Since General Jackson's administration, our country- 
lias gone back to its earlier condition. Before the last 
war with England, Massachusetts asked but for free 
trade, as restrictions upon importations, it was thought, 
would diminish the business of her merchants and skip- 
pers. For a while, under the tariffs of 1816 and 1824, 
she invested largely in manufactures ; but the incon- 
stancy of government in rendering protection to this 
interest has checked its extension, and the main inter- 
est of that state is again seen upon the ocean. But 
recently two of her leading statesmen, of her dominant 
party, proclaimed for free trade. For a few years past 
the commercial interests of the country have prospered 
and become extended with great rapidity. California 
and Australia have been treasures to the merchants as 
well as to the miners ; and the extravagant consump- 
tion by our people of foreign, in preference to domestic, 
goods, has caused the mercantile interest to flourish. 
But where, in the end, will this commerce land us ? 

IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM FOREIGN PORTS. 



Tear 

ending 

June 30. 



1845... 

1846... 
1847... 
1848... 
1849... 
1850... 
1851... 
1852... 
1853... 
1854... 
1855... 
1856... 
1857... 
1858... 



Dutiable. 



$95,106,724 
96,924,058 
104,773,002 
132,282,325 
125,479,774 
155,427,936 
191,118,345 
183,252,508 
236,595,113 
271,276,560 
221,378,184 
257,684,236 
294,160,835 
202,293,875 

21* 



Free goods 



$18,077,598 
20,990,007 
17,651,347 
16,356,379 
15,726,425 
18,081,590 
19,652,995 
24,187,890 
27,182,152 
26,327,637 J 
36,430,524! 
52,748,074! 
54,267,507! 
61,044,779! 



Specie and 
bullion. 



Total imports. 



$4,070,242 
3,777,732 

24,121,289 
6,360,224 
6,651,240 
4,628,792 
5,453,592 
5,505,044 
4,201,382 
6,958,184 
3,659,812 
4, 207,632 

12,461,799 

19,274,496 



$117,254,564 
121,691,797 
146,545,638 
154,998,928 
147,857,439 
178,138,318 
216,224,932 
212,945,442 
267,978,647 
304,562,381 
261,468,520 
314,639,942 
360,890,141 
282,613,150 



240 A HISTORY OF 

Where are we to get our money to pay these constantly 
accruing balances against us ? 

Our free-trade friends say that the importations should 
be in excess, as the excess indicates the profits. Truly 
Jonathan is kind to take all his profits in nick-nacks, 
paying for his ships, labor, and expenses, out of his 
home purse ! 

The truth is, the correct policy for this country was 
overthrown by the powerful arm of General Jackson ; 
and our leading statesmen, who plainly see the deplora- 
able condition into which we are sinking, admonished 
by the fate of Clay and Webster, have not the moral 
courage to espouse the correct principles, and urge them 
upon the country. The people will by degrees become 
enlightened upon the subject, and in this, as upon the 
question of internal improvements, get in advance of 
their cowardly leaders, and lead them to the right path. 
It was a promising indication to see a Democratic Con- 
gress, by a constitutional majority, pass improvement 
bills over the veto of Mr. Pierce ; and the day is not far 
distant when tariff bills will be enacted either with or 
without the President's consent. This will be brought 
about by sound judgment as a prudent precaution, or 
by the saddest experiences, which never apply their 
teaching in vain.* 

* As evidence of the great change going on amongst the Democrats 
in regard to the doctrine of Protection, we may mention the signifi- 
cant and highly encouraging fact that, during the political campaigns 
of 1858, many leading Democrats, in different parts of the country, 
emphatically announced themselves in favor of Protection. Leading 
Democrats in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and other states, did so. 
Mr. Hallet was decided upon the question ; and from the Boston Post, 
the leading organ of the administration, in New England, we extract 



THE WHIG PARTY. 241 

It has ever been a great fault of the people of this 
country to be governed more by party spirit than by 
ideas of state policy. Every countryman should think 
of his national family, as well as of his domestic circle. 
The substantial and permanent interests of the country 
are not so varied as to be beyond the comprehension of 
any person of ordinary information and judgment, if he 
would exclude from them the mists of speculating 

the following, by the Post copied from the Pennsylvania]!, a leading 
Democratic paper : 

"Henry Clay on the Tariff. — To those old line Whigs who 
sincerely regard the opinions of Henry Clay, the following on the sub- 
ject of a tariff are commended at this time. In 1844, when Henry 
Clay was the Whig nominee for President, he delivered a speech before 
a meeting of his political friends in Raleigh, North Carolina, which 
speech we find in the Clay Bugle of July 25th, 1844, a Whig cam- 
paign paper, published at Harrisburg, by J. Knabb, Esq. In this 
speech Mr. Clay makes use of the following emphatic language: 

" * Let the amount which is requisite for an economical administration 
of the government, when we are not engaged in war, be raised exclu- 
sively on foreign imports ; and, in adjusting a tariff for that purpose, 
let such discriminations be made as will foster and encourage our own 
domestic industry. ALL PARTIES OUGHT TO BE SATISFIED 
WITH A TARIFF FOR REVENUE AND DISCRIMINATIONS 
FOR PROTECTION.' 

" So said Henry Clay in 1844 ; so said the Democracy from the 
earliest stages of the tariff issue, and so say they now, in every 
public meeting that passes resolutions concerning the tariff. They 
have been honest and consistent in their course, while the Black 
Republicans have been dishonest in every act with reference to this 
important issue. Will the friends of Henry Clay join with that party 
which is opposing every principle which he laid down in his Raleigh 
speech? Can they strike hands over an issue which their great leader 
would not accept where he present? Henry Clay said, ' all parties 
ought to be satisfied with a tariff for revenue and discriminations for 
protection.' The Black Republicans are not satisfied with this, and 



242 A HISTORY OF 

theorists, and look at them in the light of common 
sense. 

As with the family, if the nation would become rich 
it must sell more than it buys. This is the fundamen- 
tal principle on which the whole system of political 
economy must be based. Unless the policy adopted 
shall attain this end, it will be an erroneous one. The 
truth of this position will be acknowledged by every 

lience are opposed to the principles of Henry Clay. Yet this faction 
asks the support of old line Whigs ? Such an appeal is an insult to 
the intelligence of the sincere admirers of Henry Clay. " 

The rate at which this country is going to ruin is now pretty 
plainly apparent to every intelligent man, and is made conspicuous 
by our annual trade returns. It seems that we import of cotton fabrics 
about one half the amount we manufacture. We have about $75,- 
000,000 invested in cotton manufacture, which consume, of the raw 
material, upwards of 650,000 bales per annum, worth upwards of 
$30,000,000. The value of the articles wrought from that raw ma- 
terial is nearly $60,000,000; of which some 6 or 8,000,000 — a 
coarser fabric — is exported. A country like this, with sole com- 
mand of raw material, with abundance of manufacturing skill and 
enterprise, and with every necessary facility for manufacturing, im- 
port four times as much value of cotton fabrics as it exports ! 

It is evident enough that this country can never prosper until it 
establishes a correct policy. Political parties have been a great in- 
jury to us, and that injury, unless the people shall profit by the 
lessons of the past, and change their course for the future, will con- 
tinue. We must cease our sectional jealousies, and all endeavor to 
promote the best interests of the country. The Northern man must 
not think it his mission to overturn, by civil war and disunion, what 
God has himself established ; but we must feel grateful to the enter- 
prising and courageous Saxon who will brave a tropic sun to supply 
us with the material which in a short time may make New England 
the counting-room of the trade of the world. And the Southern 
man must recollect that the God that formed this country for a great 
nation, or empire, never intended that any one part of it should 



THE WHIG PARTY 243 

one. To realize this policy is the aim of every nation 
on earth saving the United States. There is not a 
nation in Europe that does not struggle,, and generally 
with success, to keep the balance of trade in its favor. 
Even France, since the accession to power of Louis 
Napoleon, although encountering many obstacles, and 
forced to a less favorable system than she would desire, 
has, as a general thing, especially during peace, exported 

enjoy all of its advantages. Manufactures must have their place, 
commerce its centre, and agriculture its field. The Southerner must 
recollect that his is an agricultural section, and that his true policy 
consists in securing a good, safe and permanent market for his pro- 
duce. To endeavor to seek that out of the sphere, and at the expense, 
of his own country, cannot be safe. He must learn to feel grateful in 
the reflection that the people of the North, acting with the rest of the 
Union, are able to open that good and permanent market ; and he 
must cease to be annoyed with the evidences of thrift which Northern 
industry everywhere evinces, and submit to the conditions on which 
Providence has permitted him to develop the wealth of the South. 
How admirably, how cunningly this Union is formed ! Pennsylvania, 
its back-bone, is of iron ; facing the East, upon her right hand, the 
South — upon the left, the North. The grain-growing regions in the 
far West so situated as to conveniently supply the great manufactur- 
ing cities of the North, the iron manufacturers of Pennsylvania, and 
the cotton and sugar planters of the South, with direct communica- 
tion with all parts of the world at every point of the compass. That is, 
saying nothing of the Hudson and the prospects of a ship canal to 
Lake Erie, there is the great channel of communication by the 
Lakes and St. Lawrence, by the Mississippi river, and by the Columbia 
river, which will shortly be connected by railroad with the head-waters 
of the Mississippi. By a glance at the physical constitution of this 
country, it is easy to see that no ambition can profit it that is not an 
ambition for the whole country. No one part can possibly be built 
up, on a sound and enduring basis, without building up the whole ; 
and he who would, by his policy, retard and cripple the energies of a 
part, aims a blow at the whole. 



244 A HISTORY OF 

more than she has imported. Her balances have been 
comparatively healthy. 

The American people will learn before long that the 
only reliable and steady market for breadstuffs is to be 
found at home. Occasional wars abroad, or a famine, 
may create a temporary demand for grain ; but it is a 
wretched nation that cannot, as a general thing, fur- 
nish its own bread. The Yankee, who would feed an 
Englishman with his bread, will be obliged to labor under 
many difficulties. A little reflection will satisfy us that 
we must look for a sale of the produce of our farms to 
our domestic markets. It is the calculation of every 
nation to be independent in the necessaries of life, and 
to secure this end is the policy of every nation shaped. 
America is rich beyond measure in agricultural resourc- 
es ; but their development and the realization of the 
wealth they may afford, will be at a period far remote, 
unless other interests on which they are directly depend- 
ent are regarded. Commerce, as one thing, is neces- 
sary ; but how can commerce be sustained without a 
healthy foreign trade ? A trade that impoverishes the 
country must soon consume the life-springs of com- 
merce, and all industry will be paralyzed. Then what 
shall, or should, our merchant vessels be carrying over 
the oceans of the earth ? There is but one reliable 
basis for such a commerce as will enrich the country. 
On this is placed the commerce of England, who is be- 
coming the richest nation in the world. Her wealth is 
in the skill and energy of her mechanics and manufac- 
turers, and she finds the producing power of the brain 
and muscle of her industrious citizens a mine that never 
fails in its yield of gold. And unless the United States 
shall build up its manufacturing interests, what shall we 



THE WHIG PARTY. 245 

expect ? The statesmen of the South have for years 
prided themselves on possessing the principal exports 
of the country. The production of immense quantities 
of cotton is certainly creditable to our Southern neigh- 
bors ; but its shipment to Europe is a disgrace and 
shame to America. The cotton crop of this country is 
the basis of British power and prosperity, and has been 
for years. In encouraging her export of her raw ma- 
terial to be manufactured by a foreign nation, the South 
commits an act of folly for which she is not pardonable, 
and will, sooner or later, reap a suitable reward. The 
exclusive possession* of that raw material has for years 
rendered England her jealous and deadly enemy, and 
every moment this power is seeking her overthrow and 
destruction. The ruin of the domestic institutions of 
the South has ever been considered by England as the 
sure means of overcoming Southern competition in the 
production of cotton. When the slaves of the South 
are freed, England, in some of her colonies, may raise 
cotton as cheap as she. As slavery in the West Indies 
ceases, Britain finds the production of sugar in her 
East India possessions profitable. She cannot compete 
with slavery ; but with the West Indies and the South- 
ern States cultivated by free blacks she can to profit 
produce her sugar and cotton in her Eastern posses- 
sions ; and to bring about this state of things is her 
constant study and employment. Should she fail in her 
schemes against Southern slavery, she may not in ob- 
taining the command of the raw material for her im- 
mense manufactures. She is striving for this constantly, 
and already produces in the Indies quite a respectable 
proportion (about a fourth) of her raw cotton imports. 
That England will ever remain dependent on the United 



246 A HISTORY OF 

States for a raw material of such vast importance, no 
sane man should expect. The produce of India must 
already sensibly affect the Southern crop ; and how long 
will it be before it shall have a controlling power over it ? 
Will it be five, or ten, or twenty years from this ? How 
long ago was it that the cotton crop of the South did 
not exceed the present Indian crop ? And when the 
demand for American cotton is so much decreased as to 
gradually reduce its production, how is the South to 
help herself ? She will then find it too late to encourage 
a home market by having her raw material manufac- 
tured here, and putting the Ameriaan manufacture in 
competition with the English. England will, by that 
time, not only have the manufacture, and the trade with 
the whole world, but she will likewise have the supply of 
the raw material in her own hands. The golden oppor- 
tunity for putting the cotton interest beyond the reach 
of fortune is passing by. England has had no raw 
material until within a short period. Had our land 
been supplied with manufacturing establishments, and 
the raw material kept at home, and here manufactured, 
the supply of cottons for the whole world would have 
been in our hands, and no power on earth could take 
it from us. Under a liberal system, ere this time our 
manufactures would have been as extensive as those of 
England. Neither China, the Indies, nor any nation 
or people on the globe, would prefer to be supplied 
by England in preference to America. But the South 
set out in 1828 with the idea that England was the only 
purchaser for the bulk of her crop that earth would ever 
produce, and thought her interest consisted in securing 
a constant sale of her cotton in that market. And that 
stupid idea has been since hugged with John-Bull-like 



THE WHIG PARTY. 247 

pertinacity. The Southern planters have made a gross 
mistake. They have turned with utter forgetfulness and 
indifference from their poverty-stricken, painstaking, 
industrious and ingenious brothers, whom a hard des- 
tiny has cast upon the sterile rocks of New England. 
Those rich and lordly planters have passed us by 
until idleness has filled our heads with mischief which 
wholesome employment would have averted. Had the 
cotton crop of the South been annually worked up in 
Northern mills, the sin of slavery would never have been 
dreamed of, and the Union would have been bound in 
bonds that all the nations of earth could not sunder. 
22 



248 A HISTORY OP 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

MISTAKEN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES. OUR SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES 

FOR SUPPLYING THE TRADE OF THE WORLD. HAVING THE RAW 

MATERIAL, WE COULD ABSOLUTELY COMMAND THAT TRADE. — EXPENSE 
OF ENGLAND FOR COTTON. — THE EMPLOYMENT IT GIVES HER PEOPLE. 

— HOW SHE PAYS US FOR IT. — TO WHAT SHE IS INDEBTED FOR HER 

COMMERCIAL SUPERIORITY. — THE FOLLY OF AMERICA. BRITISH 

PROFITS ON OUR RAW COTTON. — HER EXPORTS. — HER PREACHING 

AND PRACTICE IN REGARD TO FREE TRADE. OUR SECTIONAL QUARRELS 

RUINOUS. — INTEREST OF ALL SECTIONS THE SAME. — UNLESS THE SOUTH 
SOON SECURE A MARKET FOR HER COTTON IN THE NORTH, BY HELPING 
TO BUILD UP MANUFACTORIES THAT MAY CONSUME HER CROPS, SHE 
MAY FIND IT TOO LATE. — ENGLAND AN ENEMY OF THE SOUTH. — SHE 
ENCOURAGES SECESSION OR DISUNION, THAT WOULD EITHER RENDER 
THAT SECTION A COLONY OF ENGLAND, OR OVERTHROW SLAVE-LABOR. 

— PROBABLE EFFECT OF A DISMEMBERMENT, ETC. 

There have been marvellous ideas of progress in this 
country ; but the progress has been in the acquisition 
of territory, instead of the achievements of mechanical 
industry. Were we to use our territory as well as 
England does hers, we could comfortably dispense with 
two-thirds of what we now have, and relinquish our 
insane longings for more. Our population is as great 
as that of the British Isles ; but Great Britain is but a 
trifle larger in extent than New England. The basis of 
her prosperity is her manufacturing industry. Without 
the constant results of her manufacturing energies, all 
vitality would depart from her commerce, and her beau- 
tiful merchant ships would decay in her harbors. What- 
ever her industry can produce is protected by formidable 



THE WHIG PARTY. 249 

duties ; but the raw material necessary to keep her 
machines in motion is admitted to her ports substan- 
tially free. Her own people are relied upon for the 
production of every species of the raw material that it 
is in their power to raise. Her policy does not benefit 
the manufacturer alone, but gives also to the farmer a 
profit in every article manufactured. The millions of 
people engaged in her work-shops, stores, warehouses 
and merchant service, are fed by the farmer, who finds 
a ready and sure market for his breads, and all the raw 
material he is able to produce. The raw material for 
her cotton fabrics is a sore charge upon her. She is 
obliged to pay the United States about $100,000,000 
per annum for this article, which is the imperial lord of 
the commerce of the age. Nature has placed the 
elements of national superiority and power in our 
hands, and, Esau-like^we truck them off to England 
for messes of pottage. To pay us for this staple, she 
sends us back, in cottons from her mills, about $30,000,- 
000 ; in woollens about the same amount ; and about 
the like amount in iron and iron manufactures. These 
three articles, all of which should be produced and 
manufactured in our own country, nearly pay us for our 
cotton exports ; and, for the privilege of selling to Britain 
our peculiar advantages and resources, which, if judi- 
ciously used, would make us at once the greatest power 
on earth, we consent to sacrifice our iron mines and 
forges, our wool-growing and manufacturing interests, 
and to take from England nearly a third in value of 
our cotton crops in cotton manufactures ! 

But England, according to the theory of our free- 
trade statesmen, must drive an unprofitable trade with 
all the world. She exports more by millions than she 



250 A HISTORY OF 

imports ; she has not that excess of imports which is 
charged to the account of profits ! And this must seem 
strange ; for her exports are of articles she ought to have 
a profit on. Her exports of cotton — that is, the various 
kinds of fabrics made from the raw material purchased of 
this country — must, even after supplying the demands 
of the British Isles, amount to between 150 and 200 mil- 
lions of dollars. The value of all her manufactured goods, 
annually exported, of every kind, cannot be of less value 
than 400,000,000 dollars. Of these goods, her vast pos- 
sessions, say the Cape, the Mauritius, St. Helena, and 
the Ascension Isles, Australia, British North America, 
West Indies, Ceylon, and the East Indies, must take 
over one-third, and the United States nearly one-quarter. 
Our country is, as a consumer of British fabrics, aboul 
equal to all her colonies, and more profitable to her, a 
thousand times over, as her outlav for influencing our 
elections, and instructing our people in the sciences of 
free-trade and free-labor, is but a trifle compared with 
her expense of governing and keeping in subjection her 
distant and rebellious possessions. England has not 
yet obtained currency for her free-trade preachings on 
the continent, and but a trifle more of her manufactures 
are purchased by the whole of Europe than by the 
United States. This country is the only one in the 
world that disregards all the laws of trade, and acts 
without any policy. It has no future destiny in view, 
and is as destitute of prudential considerations as the 
prodigal who wasted his substance in riotous living. 
The shrewd politicians of America see many objections 
to the doctrine of protection. It is thought to enhance 
the price of goods, and benefit manufacturers at the 
expense of consumers ! The United States is content 



THE WHIG PARTY. 251 

that trade shall regulate itself, and considers it folly for 
the country, as such, to attempt to exercise any control 
over our material interests. The result is that we 
are more useful to England, under the system of 
policy that she adopts and rigidly enforces, than all of 
her colonies put together.* 

* To show not only the tendency, but also the practical working, 
of Southern policy, in regard to free-trade, and opposition to domestic 
manufactures, let us state a few more facts in regard to the cotton 
trade. The United States export upwards of 1,000,000,000 pounds 
of cotton annually. From 1851 to 1855 the average annual export 
was 1,025,654,156 pounds ; but England took about two-thirds of 
these exports. Other countries in Europe for some years past have 
been fostering cottpn manufactures with great success. But both 
England and the continental nations receive quite a proportion of 
their raw material from other sources than the United States. They 
are dependent on us for about three-fourths of their cotton ; full one- 
fourth of all the cotton consumed in the manufactories of England and 
the continent is obtained from other parts of the world. The British 
East India Company commenced their efforts for the promotion of the 
growth of cotton in India, in 1788. The increase of the crop has been 
steady. In 1814 the exportation was upwards of 4,000,000 pounds, 
and it now averages some 165,000,000 pounds per annum. England 
herself, in her importations of cotton from the East Indies, from 1851 
to 1855, averaged upwards of 122,000,000 pounds annually. During 
the same period she averaged in her importations from Brazil upwards 
of 22,000,000 pounds, and from Egypt upwards of 28,000,000 pounds. 
The average importations of cotton by England during those five 
years was 838,335,984 pounds per annum ; of which the average 
annual "amount received from the United States was 661,529,220 
pounds. France, now quite a consumer of cotton, as well as England, 
is looking for independence of the United States in its production. 
Slavery is unanimously reprobated by the crowned heads of Europe ; 
but philanthropy warrants the practice of what is called the appren- 
tice system ! The trader's vessel appears off the coast of Africa, 
where reigning negro kings supply traders with slaves ; but, instead 
of buying the bodies and souls, as the abolitionists would say, they 
only buy the use of the servants for a certain number of years. The 
22* 



252 A HISTORY OP 

Providence has never made a country better adapted 
to the manufacturing interest than the United States, and 

contract is made, and the negro goes to his steady home for the term. 
When taken he is a barbarian, and when his term expires he will 
be not much less so ; and, as a compensation for not being an out- 
right chattel slave, he has two signal privileges : one, a tolerable 
passage across the Atlantic, free from the asperities of the slave-pas- 
sage, and the other, an entire freedom in old age, when unable longer 
to toil, to go where he pleases. Further, as this system seeks nothing 
but labor for a limited period, without property in the servant's 
issue, none but males are transported, so that the harrowing scenes 
of family separations can never occur. England and France have 
but one intent in the movement. It is their determination to render 
themselves independent of us ; and there is no problem that so thor- 
oughly puzzles the minds of the British and French statesmen as the 
question of European interference in matters pertaining to this con- 
tinent. But should Europe eventually obtain its supply of cotton 
independently, or comparatively so, of the United States, it will have 
occasion for congratulating itself on having made a very narrow 
escape. This especially will be the case with England. Her foreign 
wars, and vast commercial and manufacturing interests, have been 
for years supported by and entirely dependent on us. Had our 
country continued under the wise system instituted by such statesmen 
as Calhoun, Crawford, Lowndes and Clay, and which was pursued 
from 1816 to 1828, by this time we should have monopolized the 
principal manufacturing business of the world. Having the raw 
material, which others could not get, how could the world avoid being 
dependent on us? And the spindles and forges are the sinews of 
commerce. The policy then instituted would soon have reduced the 
British Isles to their natural importance, and have exalted this 
country to unparalleled wealth and power. With a monopoly of the 
raw material, and the manufactures also, no power could ever have 
competed with us, and our ascendency would have been permanent ; 
but, neglecting manufactures, and rendering ourselves dependent on 
England, instead of making her feel her dependence- on us, our 
enemies, in spite of us, are daily building up, under our eyes, quite 
reliable resources for cotton, and will, sooner or later, be in a great 
measure independent of us. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 253 

they are equally well adapted to the agricultural and 
commercial interests. This country is located, con- 
structed, and every way planned, for the seat of a great 
empire ; and it seems a pity that its high promise may 
not be realized while in its republican state. But to 
see it throwing away the advantages nature has given 
it, and shaping its national policy on ideas of local 
interest, is prophetic of the result of the present form 
of government. What revolutions, convulsions, and 
scenes of anarchy and blood, America is to pass through 
before she becomes what she seems evidently designed 
for, — a great, wealthy and commanding nation, — is 
only known to higher intelligences. We are loth to 
believe that it is fated that her glorious mission is not 
to be achieved under republican institutions. Although 
of nations, as of individuals, it may be truly said, 
" There is a destiny that shapes their ends ; " still that 
destiny, we are anxious to believe, is more or less sub- 
ject to the purposes of human wisdom. It sometimes 
seems, it is true, as though it was never the intention 
of Providence that the fate of nations should be under 
the control of popular wisdom. The career of a nation 
appears as much the subject of the laws of nature, and 
as much influenced and affected by circumstances, as the 
stream that flows from our hill-sides, and empties into 
the ocean. Whether governed by the voice of one, or 
of all its people, is the same. The subjects of perma- 
nent despotisms are such by the operation of natural 
laws, over which they have no control. It is not 
denied that physical force sometimes temporarily rules 
a people ; but generally the government of the world 
is by ideas. Ideas are as various as the localities of the 
earth, and as the organizations of men. Reason is the 



254: A HISTORY OF 

boasted prerogative of man ; but, unfortunately, reason 
appears to have a higher duty than the government of 
men ; this duty is assigned to the baser and grosser 
passions. Eeason is useful for purposes of philosophy, 
and speculation into the nature of things, but not much 
used in the conduct of human affairs. 

It does not need great wisdom to see that no nation 
can flourish by favoring the exportation of the raw ma- 
terial for manufactures, instead of encouraging its use at 
home. And for a country like this — that is capable of 
commanding the trade of the world, and, by the encour- 
agement of manufactures, of blending together the inter- 
ests of all sections, thus laying the foundations for last- 
ing prosperity — to pay no attention to its situation 
and advantages, and to adopt a course that creates no 
bond of union between its different parts, but leaves 
them estranged and jealous of each other, is evidence 
that we are devoid of a national character, a national 
policy, and a national spirit. 

Under the sectional rule of local interests the har- 
mony of our Union has long been disturbed. The alien- 
ation produced by supposed conflicting interests is still 
onward, and is ministered to constantly by all the ene- 
mies of our country, domestic and foreign.. The South 
have seen fit to treat her interests as incompatible with 
those of the North and West, and has been firmly com- 
mitted to the doctrine that manufacturing, without which 
agriculture cannot flourish, can only be favored by gov- 
ernment at her expense. In this foolish and ruinous 
idea the South, we are happy to witness, has not been 
a unit. Such states as Kentucky, North Carolina, 
Tennessee and Louisiana, have been governed by more 
liberal views, and handsome minorities in the other 



THE WHIG PARTY. 255 

Southern States have recognized sounder principles. 
But the mass of the South have seen proper to repudiate 
and make war upon the only policy under which the 
rest of the country can prosper, and without which, it 
is humbly submitted, the South herself will sooner or 
later perish. Let us see. 

The views and feelings of the ultra leaders in the 
Southern Rights party are often announced. We have 
heard of them in Congress, in Southern conventions, 
and read them in Southern papers. The leaders look 
upon the North as their enemy, and expect the day 
when an attack upon their rights shall drive them from 
the Union. They say that the North are certain, at no* 
far distant day, to invade their constitutional rights, 
and that already they have refused to carry out, in good 
faith, the constitutional compromises. The North, they 
say, are making war upon them in every conceivable 
manner, misrepresenting their institutions, and abusing 
them personally. This, it is true, is the feeling of large 
masses of Southern people ; and, actuated by this feel- 
ing, and not being indifferent to their fate, they are 
naturally led to form plans for future emergencies. But 
how vain and dangerous are all their speculations of 
which we have as yet had any indications ! England ! 
England ! In all their visions this royal mistress of the 
ocean is their first and last hope. Should Cuba and 
Mexico be acquired, and, together with the Southern 
States, forced to the step by the intolerance of Northern 
fanaticism, formed into a powerful republic or empire, — 
England, it is thought, will be the only country from 
which floods of wealth are to flow into her lap. That 
England would favor such an empire, and be its natural 
ally, no one doubts. The London Times — the British 



256 A HISTORY OF 

government organ — predicts the immediate absorption, 
by the United States, of Mexico, and favors the idea, 
saying, that no opposition would be made by foreign 
nations. But there are objections to this scheme which 
should condemn it at once. The rupture of the Union 
for the formation of a new empire could not take place 
without violence. The new empire or republic would 
be born amidst the blaze of war ; and at its birth would 
be without armies, munitions of war, or a navy. In 
such a movement the South of course sees no possible 
chance of success, saving by the aid of the Holy Alli- 
ance. This dreadful alternative will ever be sufficient 
to stay every step in the direction of secession. Men 
of sound judgment will never be likely to embark in 
such an undertaking without a proper consideration of 
all the probable consequences. And it can escape the 
discernment of no one that the birth and independence 
of such a Southern confederacy or government, undei 
the auspices of European monarchs, must end in ren- 
dering the Southern people the vassals and serfs of Eu- 
ropean lords. It is conceded that, in a struggle be- 
tween the relics of our republic in the North and the 
new confederacy in the South, European powers would 
see that they would be interested in preventing the sub- 
jugation of the latter by the former. The same policy 
that impelled France and England to resist the encroach- 
ments of Russia upon Turkey would cause the same 
powers to maintain the new government that should 
spring up in the South. But how would such a conflict 
end ? If, by pouring into the South her immense armies, 
Europe, after a struggle of years, should be successful 
in overthrowing freedom in the North, would the South 
emerge from the storm in any but a ruined condition ? 



THE WHIG PARTY. " 257 

And if the North should preserve their institutions, and, 
after a bloody and protracted contest, treat with all the 
combined powers for the independence of the new em- 
pire, in what condition would the Holy Alliance be 
likely to leave our Southern friends ? Do the ultra South- 
ern nullifiers and disunionists who can only base their 
hopes on such foreign alliances, ever look to the conse- 
quences of their mad projects ; or are they moved 
solely by a blind, impetuous fanaticism ? It is hoped 
that the views of this part of the Southern people do 
not spread, as the only hope for freedom, prosperity 
and happiness, both of the people of the South and 
North, is in union. He who looks beyond the Union 
for redress of grievances stares destruction in the 
face 



258 A HISTORY OP 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

POWER OF IDEAS. — COMMERCIAL SUPERIORITY OP ENGLAND, HOW AT- 
TAINED AND PRESERVED. — ADVANTAGES OF AMERICA SEEN BY ENG- 
LAND. — HER POLICY IN REGARD TO THE UNITED STATES. — DISUNION 
THE ONLY POSSIBLE MEANS OF PREVENTING THIS COUNTRY FROM 

EVENTUALLY ENJOYING THE TRADE NOW ENJOYED BY ENGLAND. 

HER SCHEMES. — HER SLAVERY QUESTION. — HER SACRIFICES IN THE 
WEST INDIES. — HER LABORS INJURIOUS TO THE NEGRO. — ALISON ON 
EMANCIPATION IN THE WEST INDIES. — MISSIONARY MOVEMENT IN THE 
WEST INDIES. — CIVILIZATION OF NEGROES ARRESTED BY EMANCIPA- 
TION. EFFECT OF WEST INDIAN EMANCIPATION ON THE UNITED 

STATES. — SIMULTANEOUS EFFORTS OF BRITISH ABOLITIONISTS IN THE 

UNITED STATES. RESULT NOT THE SAME AS IN THE WEST INDIES, AND 

THE REASONS. INCENDIARY PUBLICATIONS AND PETITIONS IN 1835 

AND 1836. — ANTI-SLAVERY OPERATIONS OF THOSE DAYS INSTIGATED 
ABROAD. — COURSE OF SOUTHERN MEN IN THOSE DAYS. — REMARKS OF 
MR. CLAY ON THE OBJECTS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS. — NEW ENGLAND 
DUPED BY OLD ENGLAND. 

In recent ages, in particular, great political changes 
have been effected, less by the sword, for the avowed 
purpose of plunder, than by the power of ideas. Polit- 
ical ideas have frequently wrought revolutions ; but reli- 
gious ones have borne the greatest sway. The spread 
of Mahometanism shows what a motive power in the 
human breast are religious ideas. The enthusiasm and 
desperate courage of the Mahometan, however, is not 
perhaps peculiar. The crusader, under another creed, 
was not less fierce and enthusiastic than his Saracen 



THE WHIG PARTY. 259 

antagonist. The crusades were great movements, caused 
by the steam-like power of religious ideas. The em- 
pire of Charlemagne, as well as that of Constantine, 
was won by a war inspired and sustained by them ; 
and, in fact, the principal revolutions and popular com- 
motions of modern times have been occasioned by reli- 
gious fanaticism. The recent war between Russia and 
Turkey, as between these powers, was a religious one. 
The education of the serf's mind is in the hands of the 
Czar, and the serf is by that hand rendered as obedient 
as the engine to the hand of the engineer. But few 
monarchs, in modern days, attempt to hold a people by 
the power of the sword alone. A conquest may open 
the windows of a nation for the light of the conqueror's 
religion ; but the conquest is not regarded safe until 
this enters. But conquests now-a-days rather succeed 
than precede the missionary. That is, the ambitious 
monarch prefers, by- propagating revolutionary ideas, to 
first excite a division among his enemies, as his yoke is 
thus more easily forced upon them. An idea is a far 
more effective weapon with which to overthrow an enemy 
than a bullet. Let the idea once be fairly lodged in that 
enemy's mind, — let the honest countryman once re- 
ceive into his mental organization the peculiar religious 
bias, — and through it his adversary will control him 
with more effect and certainty than he could by the 
appliance of any physical force ever invented. Con- 
siderations of patriotism are at once lost sight of in the 
presence of* the peculiar religious ism, for which every- 
thing will be freely sacrificed. Dynasties are built on 
creeds, and the regulation of the balances of power, so 
much talked about in modern times, is but, in fact, the 
23 



260 A HISTORY OF 

proper adjustment by alliances of the powers of the 
earth with regard to conflicting religions. 

The governments of Europe wield their respective 
people entirely through their mental organizations, and, 
having the schools, pulpits and presses, in their own 
hands, no horseman with a rein directs his steed with 
more ease and certainty than the monarch controls his 
subject. Ideas are not dug from the earth, do not grow 
upon trees, nor are they rained down from heaven. 
They are a communicated power, usually received from 
without, and rarely from within. The mind, like the 
soil, cherishes whatever is committed to it, and is as 
generous and lavish of its riches upon an evil as upon 
a good plant. 

In the earlier ages, when a people became too numer- 
ous in a particular nomadic family, portions, from time 
to time, would separate themselves from the parent 
stock, going forth, under new leaders, to conquer new 
homes, and repeat the process of multiplying tribes. 
Europe was in this manner settled from Asia ; but 
America was not in this way settled from Europe. 
Before the discovery of America, nomadic life had 
become pretty much obliterated from Europe, its 
numerous tribes having become blended into nations. 
These nations owed their birth and consolidation to the 
power of religious ideas ; and to the same power was 
America indebted for her settlement. Emigration took 
a new form. About the time of the discovery of 
America, ideas began to burst forth from the tombs 
in which they had been buried for centuries. The 
treasures of ancient thought were dug up from manu- 
scripts saved from the wrecks of antiquity, to be buried 
again under a rigorous censorship more stifling than 



THE WHIG PARTY. 261 

mediaeval darkness. As ideas in conflict with the 
divine right of the ruling monarch rendered the sub- 
ject an enemy of the state, and guilty of treason, gov- 
ernments were cautious to suppress their introduction 
and circulation. Despite the vigilance of kings and 
emperors, thoughts subversive of the ruling dynasties 
gradually crept in amongst the people ; and hence the 
emigrations to the wilds of America. 

It is as true now as it was centuries ago that, " as a 
man thinketh, so is he." The idea is the sovereign lord 
and master of the man, and to this each looks as his 
higher and supreme law. Life itself is less cherished 
than a creed. The martyr burning at the stake expires 
in a paroxysm of joy at the thought that his faith is 
triumphant over the power of man. In the ardor of the 
affection with which a faith is cherished, there is no dif- 
ference between those who follow the true, and those who 
follow the false god. There is certainly no less enthu- 
siasm in the Mahometan than in the Christian ; and the 
atheist is as religiously devoted to his idea as either of 
them. As man's ideas are, is his allegiance determined. 
The words of the serpent transformed Eve from a ser- 
vant of God to a servant of Satan. Dynasties and 
thrones, as well as republics, are only sustained by 
ideas. If republics are less stable than monarchies, it- 
is because the perpetuation of conservative opinions is 
not so likely to occur in the hands of a mob as in those 
of a despot. The British crown has frequently been the 
foot-ball of shifting religious ideas. Religionists will 
sacrifice liberty in preference to making a surrender of 
their peculiar notions ; and hence the great check to the 
establishment of free institutions in England, and Europe 
generally. Neither Scotland nor Ireland would have 



262 • A HISTORY OF 

been subjected so long to the British crown, but for the 
conflict of religious notions among the people of those 
isles ; nor, without such conflict of ideas among their 
people, would the Canadas till this day have remained 
subject to British rule. 

It is the object of England, as it was with ancient 
Athens, to maintain her naval supremacy over the whole 
world. But as England, for this, has not within her 
bosom the natural resources for such ascendency, she is 
forced to maintain it, if at all, by policy. In this, also, 
she resembles her Grecian model. The ancient mistress 
of the seas was vigilant, shrewd and daring. No 
power of old was more artful and prompt to ferment 
troubles amongst its neighbors, and take advantage of 
them, than the subtle Athenians. It is plain enough 
that if England is to remain the commercial centre of 
the world, and continue to maintain that balance of 
power which a naval superiority commands, she must 
accomplish it by far-seeing counsels, and by a bold, 
firm and daring course. The extension of those powers 
possessing superior resources must be firmly and deci- 
sively checked and restrained ; and, for this purpose, 
all those who may share her jealousies should be allied 
to her policy. France, ruled by the great Napoleon, 
would have been a powerful competitor for the palm, 
and, by the triumph of peaceful arts alone, might have 
shorn England of much of her power and glory. The 
effort of England to put down that great man was a 
struggle, not only for ascendency, but for self-preserva- 
tion. But the policy of England demanded Napoleon's 
overthrow. To stop short of this would have been a 
surrender of the vast power and consequence which the 
artificial system of that little isle has acquired in the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 263 

world. The greatness and power of Britain are extorted 
from other nations by a deep-laid policy, backed by a 
strong arm, and are not the results of vast national 
dominions, people and resources. Her colonial domin- 
ions are large ; but they are only held by a commercial 
tenure. They are no part of England proper, and drop 
from her when the commerce of the world glides from 
her hands. That commerce is now forced. The raw 
material for her principal fabrics has to be bought at an 
enormous expense, and shipped across the Atlantic, 
giving to each article of British cotton manufacture 
consumed in America a journey, in the raw and manu- 
factured state, of upwards of six thousand miles. The 
United States, in the nature of things, must be a com- 
petitor of Britain in manufactures, and must soon, 
unless checked in their career of greatness, take the trade 
of the world into their own hands. This century will 
give us a hundred millions of people. The increase of 
population will materially affect the policy of our 
statesmen. All classes will encourage home industry, 
and the South, that distrusted the home market for 
her staple when we numbered only ten or twelve mil- 
lions of people, will thwart our national prosperity no 
longer. 

England studies and understands the tendency of our 
career better than we do ourselves. She sees that we 
hold in our hands the commerce of the world. She 
sees the approaching absorption of Cuba, Mexico and 
Central America, giving us an unlimited and perpetual 
control of the cotton staple ; and then her vision is 
greeted by manufactures sufficient to supply the whole 
earth. Her vision does not stop here. She judges the 
future by the past, and sees our population expanded 
23* 



264 A. HISTORY OF 

to hundreds of millions, with magnificent railways 
stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ; and, 
as her eyes glance at the harbors, at the termini of these 
railways on the Pacific coast, she is startled, and, for a 
moment, alarmed. These harbors she sees filled with 
the fleets of the world, with steamers plying between 
them and the Indies, pouring the commerce of the East 
upon these Pacific thoroughfares. As this all passes 
before her aching eyes, she looks again, and in vain 
peers about the world for her own magnificent com- 
merce and possessions. She discovers that the island 
of Great Britain has ceased to be the centre of com- 
merce ; that Russia has really at last slipped into the 
seat of Constantine ; and that the United States kave 
succeeded her Britannic Majesty in India — the Indian 
possessions being peacefully resigned by those who have 
no further use for them. England is as clear as day in 
these visions, and knows them to be real, and to be 
realizable, provided the Union shall last half a century 
longer. The cry which Rome uttered in regard to 
Carthage, she uses towards the United States. The 
only thing which can possibly preserve the ascend- 
ency of British commerce is the dissolution of the 
American Union. Her arts are all concentrated for the 
accomplishment of this. Her modus operandi has been 
alluded to. Let us look a little further into her doleful 
wailings for the wrongs of American slaves. - 

The powerful efforts made by the British government 
early in the present century, and, in fact, continued to 
the present day, to suppress the slave-trade, have been 
far from successful. The exportation of negroes from 
Africa has not been discontinued ; but the sufferings of 
the middle-passage have been increased ten-fold ; show- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 265 

ing that an attempt to thwart by legislation the decrees 
of Providence is of but little avail. The exportation 
of slaves to America is comparatively a recent matter, 
and is a happy vent to the slave-traffic, compared with 
the negro-trade that has been carried on for thousands 
of years with the rest of the world. But England has 
not endeavored to stop the sales of slaves to the traders 
who convey them over the Great Desert, nor with the 
drovers who move them down the Nile. She has been 
more in dread of the sufferings which Sambo would be 
likely to experience in the hands of a savage Yankee, 
than moved by fear of what he would suffer in the power 
of the Oriental races. A Turk or an Arab is regarded 
as a mild and Christian master compared with a Jona- 
than ; and no sigh is ever heard for the mutilated 
wretches who are borne from Africa into the East. 
There are, in their equatorial hive in Africa, some fifty 
millions of negroes ; and there their tribes have been 
for ages. Enterprise is the gift of mental organization. 
The negro has it not. He has the physical faculties for 
labor, but not the intellect that will excite him to it. 
He seems designed for a servile and subordinate posi- 
tion, as without compulsion he cannot be induced to 
labor. The motives that impel the people of other races 
to effort have no effect upon the negro. Consequently, 
he is by nature a barbarian. Under a civilized master 
he becomes civilized, and experience teaches that his 
highest status is brought out in servitude. 

The error of England in making herself so officious in 
endeavoring to put a stop to the slave-trade and negro 
slavery is, as a humanitarian movement, now clearly 
seen by everybody. Her policy, so far as her material 
interests, and the happiness and prosperity of the negro 



266 A HISTORY OF 

are concerned, has been a mistaken one. This is, on 
the whole view of the subject, fully and frankly asserted 
by Mr. Alison, in the volume of his History of Europe 
(Vol. 7) just published. "Like all other great move- 
ments of the human race," says Mr. Alison, speaking 
of the slave-trade, " brought about by the irresistible 
laws of nature acting by physical necessities or moral 
influence, this vast transportation of mankind, however 
violent in its origin, or painful in its completion, was 
calculated to produce, and will ultimately confer, great 
benefits upon the species. It promised to effect what 
all the changes of time, and all the efforts of philan- 
thropy, from the beginning of the world, had failed in 
accomplishing — the ultimate civilization of the African 
race.' 7 Then, speaking of the legislation for the sup- 
pression of the slave-trade, Mr. Alison quotes the report 
of Mr. Bruxton, an advocate of emancipation, which 
says, "Twenty years ago the African institution reported 
to the Duke of Wellington that the number of slaves 
who annually crossed the Atlantic was 10,000. There 
is evidence before the parliamentary committee to show 
that about one-third was for the British Islands, and one- 
third for St. Domingo ; so that, if the slave-trade of other 
countries had been stationary, they ought only to have 
imported 25,000 ; whereas, now; (1838) the number landed 
in Cuba and Brazil alone is 150,000 annually; being more 
than double the whole draft of Africa when- the slave- 
trade controversy began ! Twice as many human beings 
are now its victims as when Wilberforce and Clarkson 
commenced their noble career ; and each individual of 
this increased number, in addition to the horrors which 
were endured in former times, has to suffer from being 
cribbed up in a narrow space, and on board of a vessel 



// 



THE WHIG PARTY. 267 

where accommodation is sacrificed to speed. Painful 
as this is, it becomes still more distressing if it shall 
appear that our present system has not failed by mis- 
chance, or want of energy, or want of expenditure ; 
but that the system itself is erroneous, and must neces- 
sarily end in disappointment.' 7 And, adds Mr. Alison, 
"Thus the effect of the emancipation of the negroes has 
been to ruin our own planters, stop the civilization of 
our own negroes, and double the slave-trade in extent, 
and quadruple it in horror throughout the globe." Mr. 
Alison's chapter on slavery ought to be carefully pe- 
rused by that portion of the New England people who 
have formed their opinion on the subject without exam- 
ination. As a historian, Mr. Alison, although a British 
writer, with prejudices in favor of British interests, 
could not, without the grossest misrepresentation, and 
the most glaring falsehood, have drawn any different 
picture from that presented us. 

But the British government had other motives than 
those of humanity. The monopoly of the cotton prod- 
uct by the United States can never, she has thought, 
be overthrown, save by striking it through the American 
system of negro servitude. The sacrifices of England 
to put an end to the slave-trade have been alluded to. 
It was during the administration of President Jackson 
that England (1834) passed her first act for emancipat- 
ing the slaves of her West India possessions. The 
emancipation of her slaves was not contemplated by 
England when she commenced her warfare on the slave- 
trade ; but that measure was hastened on by the agita- 
tions of the slavery question in England, and by the 
state of things brought about in her slave islands by 
these agitations. After a deep sympathy had been 



268 A HISTORY OF 

aroused in England for the slaves, ministers and 
missionaries commenced their labors in the British 
West Indies. As might and ought to have been ex- 
pected, those missionary labors were ruinous to the 
peace and happiness of the slave, and soon superin- 
duced a state of things that demanded legislative aid, 
or rendered emancipation absolutely necessary. Alison, 
speaking of the effects of those abolition labors, says : 
" Riots of a very alarming character took place in several 
districts, some arising from the indignation of the planters 
at the missionaries, others from the highly excited feel- 
ings of the negroes in consequence of their preachings. 
Shrewsbury, a missionary in Barbadoes, was a victim 
to violence of the first kind, and only saved his life by 
flying from the colony ; and the imprudent zeal of an- 
other, named Smith, in Demarara, produced an insur- 
rection among the blacks of so threatening a character 
that martial law was proclaimed in the colony, and con- 
tinued in force for five months." Of the insurrection 
in Jamaica, in December, 1831, the historian says : "The 
blacks proceeded to break into houses and take arms, or 
bring out weapons of their own which they had secreted, 
and, assembling in large bodies, marched in every direc- 
tion over the island,„inciting the slaves to join them, 
and burning and destroying every plantation or build- 
ing which came within their reach. The houses and 
settlements of the free people of color, however hum- 
ble, shared, in the devastation equally with the larger 
plantations of the European. The unchained African 
marked, as he had done in St. Domingo in 1789, his first 
step towards freedom by murder, conflagration, and every 
crime at which humanity recoils. The whole island was 
illuminated at night by the light of burning edifices ; 



THE WHIG PARTY. 269 

the sky darkened by day with the vast clouds of smoke 
which issued from the conflagrations." The condition 
of the islands had become such, under the influence of 
abolition emissaries, that emancipation was at last, 
although the planter obtained but about one-half the 
real value of his slaves, a welcome measure. But the 
effect upon the prosperity of the islands, as well as on 
the condition of the negro, has been exceedingly detri- 
mental. This is shown by Mr. Alison's account of West 
India slavery, and that author is forced to the observa- 
tions : " Generally speaking, the incipient civilization 
of the negro has been arrested by his emancipation ; 
with the cessation of forced labor, the habits and tastes 
which spring from and compensate it, have disappeared, 
and savage habits and pleasures have assumed their 
ascendency over the sable race. The attempts to in- 
struct and civilize them have for the most part proved 
a failure ; the dolce far niente, equally dear to the un- 
lettered savage as to the effeminate European, has 
resumed its sway ; and the emancipated Africans, dis- 
persed in the woods, or in cabins erected amidst 
ruined plantations, are fast relapsing into the state in 
which their ancestors were when they were torn from 
their native seats by the rapacity of Christian avarice." 
But the emancipation of, her slaves by Great Britain 
was an indispensable step in her crusade against Amer- 
ican slavery. The abolition of slavery by England was 
a great fact, and has had immense power upon the 
minds of Americans. There has been no occasion to 
examine into the propriety, expediency, or humanity of 
the act ; everybody, until of late, has considered the 
sacrifice of money involved in the measure as sufficient 
evidence that it could have been prompted only by 



270 A HISTORY OF 

principles of justice. Without examination, without 
reflection, and without question, the step taken by Eng- 
land in emancipating her slaves, has been placed to her 
credit, and for that act her praises have been preached 
and sung in all parts of the United States. 

The course pursued by England towards her slave 
colonies was, under the lead of British emissaries, at- 
tempted by the free upon the slave states in this coun- 
try. It was thought that the insurrections of St. Do- 
mingo and Jamaica could be repeated in the South, and 
immediately on the passage by Parliament of her first 
act of emancipation, the subject of emancipation in the 
United States was opened with uncommon violence. 
American abolition societies were formed under the lead 
and auspices of British societies, and, by the aid of 
foreign gold, the United States was deluged with anti- 
slavery publications. In 1834 the number of abolition- 
ists in this country was small ; but, with the aid they 
received from abroad, they were enabled to create a 
profound sensation by their labors, and to one who was 
unsuspecting of their foreign alliances and subsidies, 
their exertions and expenditures were thought astonish- 
ing. British abolitionists were in correspondence with 
our Congressmen and other prominent public men, and 
abolition emissaries from that country came across the 
Atlantic to teach the true principles of liberty. It was 
during the administration of Jackson, and about the 
time of the British emancipation movement, that a 
noted George Thompson, for instance, made his ap- 
pearance amongst us. But England soon found that 
this country was not prepared for the active measures 
she would enforce upon us. The United States, that 
power was again taught, was not exactly the West 



THE WHIG PARTY. 271 

India Islands. All of sufficient age well recollect the 
attempt to repeat in the South the West India mission- 
ary movement. Under the auspices of the British in- 
structors Northern abolitionists commenced their labors 
in the slave states, and began to awaken the apprehen- 
sions of slaveholders. •* But the Southern masters were 
not dependent for protection on a legislature three 
thousand miles off, in which they had no voice ; and, as 
they were disinclined to submit to the fate experienced 
by the slaveholders in St. Domingo, they dealt rather 
summarily with the Yankee crusaders ; and hence the 
stringent laws in the South against giving instruction 
to slaves. Several emissaries of Northern and British 
abolition societies were in those days caught in the 
humane and philanthropic mission of exciting slaves to 
rebellion and murder ; but the harsh justice dealt out 
to them by Judge Lynch, who happened to hold his 
court in the South, at once put an end to the system 
which had accomplished so much in the British West 
Indies. In those days the aggression was from the 
North ; Southern aggression was not then so popular 
a phrase. Such assaults upon their institutions exas- 
perated the Southern people, and taught them what 
they were to expect from their Northern neighbors, 
and did much to bring into existence the ultra Southern 
pro-slavery party, which is impatient to dissolve all con- 
nection with the North. But perhaps those attempts 
upon Southern institutions, of which mention has been 
made, were too rudely checked. Some Northern mis- 
sionaries were tried by lynch-law — perhaps executed. 
Southern barbarity was then gravely enlarged upon, and 
the blood of God's servants was made the seed of the 
Northern abolition church. But, as the overthrow of 
24 



272 A HISTORY OF 

slavery could not be effected by the missionary move- 
ment, the tract system was next tried. The mails were 
loaded with incendiary publications for distribution 
among the slaves — publications intended and calcu- 
lated to arouse their passions, and excite them to insur- 
rection. The attempt was one directly upon the insti- 
tutions of the South, in the original slave states. It 
was an effort to subvert Southern institutions, acting 
from the North, but emanating from England. It has 
ever been the pretence of Northern men that they have 
no desire to meddle with slavery in the states where it 
exists by local law, and that the prevention of its fur- 
ther spread is all that concerns their bleeding hearts. 
But, at the period of which we are speaking, a powerful 
effort was made to incite the slaves of the South to in- 
surrection, that they might murder their masters, and, 
under the protection of England and Northern senti- 
ment, establish their freedom, and perhaps wrest the 
South from the Union. Every resistance of the South 
to such aggressions from the North was sounded through 
New and Old England as evidence of the cruel, aban- 
doned, and fiendish disposition and character of South- 
ern men. The mails, as we have said, were loaded with 
prints and pictures designed to arouse the vengeance of 
the slave. These pictures were smuggled amongst the 
slaves in many ways. The wrappers of packages of 
goods, such as tobacco and other articles consumed by 
negroes, were, upon their inner sides, covered with 
pictures representing the slaves in chains and rags, 
with lordly masters holding scourges in their hands ; 
and many other designs of like character were im- 
pressed upon articles of dress, and pieces of paper 
smuggled into goods consumed by the blacks, and thus 



THE WHIG PARTY. 273 

sent amongst them. For those that could read, incen- 
diary publications, directly advising them to assert their 
liberties, were poured upon them in great abundance. 
Considering the limited number of the political aboli- 
tionists in the North in those days, we should be sur- 
prised at the lavish expenditures to produce insurrec- 
tions in the South, did we not know that a foreign 
power was at the bottom of the movement. These 
efforts produced a powerful commotion at the time. 
Congress was exercised with the subject. Mr. Calhoun, 
we think it was, proposed a bill making it penal for a 
postmaster to transmit or deliver from the mail, prints, 
pictures, and publications, of the kind referred to ; and, 
if recollection serves right, we think there was, during 
those days, much complaint in the North about South- 
ern lawlessness in exercising or requiring their post 
masters to exercise a surveillance over the matter pass- 
ing through the mail. That was one of the grave charges 
against the South. 

During the administration of Jackson, also, and at 
about the same time of which we have been speaking, 
the nation was thunderstruck at the simultaneous ap- 
pearance, from all parts of the land, — from Ohio, Penn- 
sylvania, New York, New England, and almost every 
free state, — of petitions for the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia. And, as these petitions were all 
signed by a conscientious and highly Christian people, 
the petitioners could not forego the solemn duty of de- 
nouncing slavery as a damning sin, and a scandalous 
reproach to the nation. That Southern senators and 
members of Congress should manifest impatience at such 
representations of their institutions, was only another 
instance and evidence of the abandoned and sunken moral 



274 A HISTORY OF 

condition of that section of the country. The North 
knew that slavery was a monstrous sin. If the Southern 
people doubted it, so much the more benighted must they 
have been. Mr. Calhoun objected to the reception of 
the petitions on the ground of privilege ; he thought 
that the member's constituents should be protected from 
insult as well as the member himself. But, although 
scarcely a member of either house was in favor of the 
object of these petitions, many were in favor of their 
reception, out of regard to the sacredness of the right 
of petition. The appearance of these petitions occa- 
sioned much discussion and excitement in Congress, 
and the covert object of their movers was seen by the 
leading men of the day. The attack upon the South 
was systematic and vigorous. Up to that day, at least, 
the South had been passive under the encroachments 
of the North. The acquisition of Texas and other gigan- 
tic strides of the slave power, as we term it, have taken 
place since that time. But Southern men saw the ob- 
ject of those who were at the bottom of the petition 
movement, and exercised a conservative forbearance in 
the matter. The remarks of Mr. King, of Georgia, in 
1836, upon the motion of Mr. Calhoun not to receive 
one of these abolition memorials, were conceived in a 
clear insight into the aims of the Northern agitators. 
" We may seek occasion (says Mr. King) to rave about 
our rights, appeal to the guarantees of the Constitution, 
denounce the abolitionists, &c. &c, and Arthur Tappan 
and his pious fraternity would very coolly remark, 
' Well, that is precisely what I wanted ; I wanted agi- 
tation in the South ; I wished to provoke the "autocratic 
slaveholder" to make extravagant demands on the 
North, which the North could not consistently surren- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 275 

der to them. I wished them, under the pretext of se- 
curing their own rights, to encroach upon the rights of 
all the American people. In short, I wish to change 
the issue/ " And, although he regarded such petitions 
as insulting, and a gross outrage upon the South, Mr. 
King advised their reception as the most effectual way 
of defeating the real object of their originators. 

That the object of the abolition movements of those 
days was not humanity, but to produce a sectional 
hatred between the North and South, was clearly dis- 
cernible by every rational observer. The means of the 
truly Christian reformer are gentle and peaceable, and 
originate in love ; but diabolical hatred has ever been 
the prominent characteristic of the abolitionist. His 
language and acts have ever marked him as one in 
league with the enemies of our country. This has been 
seen, felt, and regretted, by the intelligent and patriotic 
portions of both North and South. Hatred begets hatred. 
There could be no surer way to alienate the South from 
the North than for the latter to array itself against the 
former. The tendencies of these Abolition crusades 
were at an early day pointed out by our first statesmen ; 
by none with more force and feeling than by Henry Clay. 
Speaking of the means made use of by the abolitionists, 
he said (1836) : " Another, and much more lamentable 
one, is that which this class is endeavoring to employ, 
of arraying one portion against another of the Union. 
With that view, in all their leading prints and publica- 
tions, the alleged horrors of slavery are depicted in most 
glowing and exaggerated colors, to excite imaginations 
and stimulate the rage of the people of the free states 
against the people of the slave states. The slave- 
holder is held up and represented as the most atrocious 
24* 



276 A HISTORY OF 

of human beings. Advertisements of fugitive slaves, 
and of slaves to be sold, are carefully collected and 
blazoned forth, to infuse a spirit of detestation and 
hatred against one entire and the largest section of the 
Union. . . . Why are the slave states wantonly and cruelly 
assailed ? Why does the abolition press teem with pub- 
lications tending to excite hatred and animosity on the 
part of the free states against the. slave states ? . . . 
Why is Congress petitioned ? What would be thought 
of the formation of societies in the slave states, the 
issuing of violent and inflammatory tracts, and the dep- 
utation of missionaries, pouring out impassioned denun- 
ciations against institutions under the exclusive control 
of the free states ? Is their purpose to appeal to our 
understandings and actuate our humanity ? And do 
they expect to accomplish that purpose by holding us 
up to scorn, and contempt, and detestation of the peo- 
ple of the free states, and the whole civilized world ? . . . 
Sir, I am not in the habit of speaking lightly of the pos- 
sibility of dissolving this happy Union. The Senate 
knows that I have deprecated allusions, on ordinary 
occasions, to that direful event. The country will tes- 
tify that, if there be anything in the history of my pub- 
lic career worthy of recollection, it is the truth and 
sincerity of my ardent devotion to its lasting preser- 
vation. But we should be false in our allegiance to it, 
if we did not discriminate between the imaginary and 
real dangers by which it may be assailed. Abolition 
should no longer be regarded as an imaginary danger. 
The abolitionists, let me suppose, succeed in their pres- 
ent aim of uniting the inhabitants of the free states as 
one man against the inhabitants of the slave states. 
Union on the one side will beget union on the other. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 277 

And this process of reciprocal consolidation will be 
attended with all the violent prejudices, embittered pas- 
sions, and implacable animosities which ever degraded 
or deformed human nature. A virtual dissolution of the 
Union will have taken place, while the forms of its ex- 
istence remain. The most valuable element of union, 
mutual kindness, the feelings of sympathy, the fraternal 
bonds, which now happily unite us, will have been ex- 
tinguished forever. One section will stand in menacing, 
hostile array against another; the collision of opinion 
will be quickly followed by the clash of arms." 

The part taken by England in educating the masses 
of the North for disunion is not visible to everybody, 
because, as in the case of the Henry mission, her opera- 
tions are secret. Her long-continued jealousy of our 
growing power and influence we have seen and felt ; 
but that she would secretly intrigue and labor for our 
overthrow we cannot credit, because she is a marvel- 
lously benevolent nation, and is opposed to slavery ! 



278 A HISTORY Oi 



CHAPTER XXV. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1835, 1836. — CURRENCY QUESTION. — RETROGRADE REVO- 
LUTION OF THE DEMOCRACY. — THE NEW SYSTEM BROUGHT ABOUT BY 
VAN BUREN TO INSURE HIS SUCCESSION. — VAN BUREN ELECTED. — 
SPEECHES OF WEBSTER. — COMMERCIAL REVULSION OF 1837, AND 
CAUSES. — BENTON'S THIRTY YEARS' VIEW. — VAN BUREN'S SUB- 
TREASURY SCHEME. — TRAITS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. SPEECHES 

OF CLAY AND WEBSTER ON THE SUB-TREASURY. JOHN C. CALHOUN 

AND HIS RECONCILIATION WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, ETC. 

The campaign of 1836 is too recent to need a 
lengthy notice. The veto of the United States Bank 
charter ; the removal of the government funds to the 
state banks ; the resolution of the Senate censuring 
the President for that removal ; the President's protest 
to the Senate against that resolution ; and the expung- 
ing act of the Senate, were the subjects of warm polit- 
ical debates during those days. Henry Clay and Daniel 
Webster were the acknowledged leaders of the Whigs, 
and the grounds on which these statesmen opposed the 
administration were accepted by the party generally, 
and adopted as in accordance with Whig principles. 
The expositions of Clay and Webster, in regard to cur- 
rency and political economy, were considered rational 
and sound ; and, although in the minority, the Whigs 
embraced a large share of the talent and business expe- 
rience of the land. Under ordinary circumstances their 



THE WHIG PARTY. 279 

efforts would infallibly have insured success ; but the 
popularity of the hero of New Orleans was an extraor- 
dinary obstacle in their way. To the millions who were 
incapable of investigating and deciding on the princi- 
ples of political economy, the name of the patriotic 
soldier was more potent than that of the civilian. Pos- 
terity will decide correctly upon the administration of 
Jackson. Although he may have made some wretched 
blunders during his presidential term, his administra- 
tion was not, as his biassed opponents were disposed to 
claim, altogether a failure. But the candid reviewer of 
the administration of the General must acknowledge that 
his affected attempt to carry the principles of gov- 
ernment back to the policy of Jefferson, was a sad mis- 
take. It effected, as already shown, a revolution in the 
domestic policy of the country. It was a leap back- 
wards over the combined wisdom and experience of a 
quarter of a century. And what renders that retrograde 
step particularly censurable is, that it was not taken as 
a means to secure the triumph of President Jackson, — 
which was secure enough without such a resort, — but 
was taken to secure the success of his successor. Un- 
less a new policy should be adopted, — a policy, glossed 
with the glory of the hero, and exclusively supported by 
the chieftain's favorite, — that favorite would fare poorly, 
it was thought, in his struggle for the presidency in 
competition with many abler and more popular states- 
men than himself. The scheme was successful. Jack- 
son reigned long enough to see the monster crushed, 
and the American system of protection overturned. 
The campaign of 1836 opened with Yan Buren, the sole 
exponent of the measures of Jackson's administration, 
upon the track. He was pledged to follow in his pre- 



280 A HISTORY OF 

decessor's footsteps. The undertaking was a daring 
one, as represented by the caricaturists of that day. 
General Harrison was the Whig candidate. Although 
Mr. Van Buren was successful, it was seen that the 
faith of the nation had become somewhat shaken in the 
new principles espoused by the Democracy. The vote 
in opposition to Van Buren was large enough to startle 
the administration party, and did somewhat surprise 
them, in view of their decline from the immense majori- 
ties of General Jackson. General Harrison received 
seventy-five electoral votes ; twenty-six (namely, of 
Georgia and Tennessee) were cast for Hugh-L. White ; 
fourteen (of Massachusetts) for Mr. Webster, and South 
Carolina voted for Mr. Mangum : whereas Van Buren 
received but one hundred and seventy. The doctrines 
and principles of the Whigs had, even at that period, 
made a powerful impression on the minds of the Ameri- 
can people. The speeches of Clay and Webster were 
quite generally read, and those of Mr. Webster, put 
forth in the United States Senate, and on the stump, 
during the Jackson and Van Buren administrations, are 
the most masterly expositions of the principles of polit- 
ical economy to be found in our language. For re- 
search, for originality, for depth of thought, and for 
thorough analysis of the principles of the Constitution, 
of currency and of trade, Mr. Webster's speeches were 
immeasurably superior to Mr. Clay's. Mr. Clay was 
undoubtedly, in many respects, the most pleasing ora- 
tor ; but the speeches of Webster became at once not 
only oracles in matters of political science, but also 
treasures of literature. 

No party ever had a brighter array of upright, intel- 
ligent, and popular statesmen than rallied in the Whig 



THE WHIG PARTY. 281 

ranks throughout all parts of the Union ; nor has a party 
ever been so noted for the number and high character 
of its public journals. The eight years in the minor- 
ity, prior to 1836, had not been without promising 
results. Probably the world never before witnessed 
such a struggle ; it was a struggle between reason and 
prejudice ; an encounter of moral forces, without the 
interposition of physical power. The struggle was not 
in vain. The principles then espoused by the Whigs, 
so far as they have triumphed in the councils of the 
nation, have shed blessings upon the country ; and, so 
far as they were right, will sooner or later become all- 
prevailing. Party organizations are not stable crea- 
tions ; but political principles are enduring. 

The error of the Van Buren dynasty (for, although 
the new system of Democratic policy was ostensibly 
carved out by Jackson, it was thought in reality to be 
the handiwork of Van Buren) was soon revealed by 
its disastrous fruits. The overthrow of the national 
currency, and the expansion of credit consequent on 
the deposit of the government funds in the state banks, 
enhanced the prices of foreign commodities, and aided, 
with the reduction of duties by the compromise tariff, 
immense importations of foreign goods. The fatal con- 
sequences that must inevitably flow from such a state 
of things a sane people would have foreseen. During 
the last four years of Jackson's administration, the 
excess of importations over exportations was $130,000,- 
000. This was in a great measure the result of the 
compromise measure of 1832. Under that measure 
each year saw a reduction of duties on foreign goods. 
But, as the destruction of the national bank occasioned 
the creation of a large number of state banks ; and as 



282 A HISTORY OF 

the state banks, encouraged thereto by the deposit of 
government mone} r s, and the recommendation of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, loaned out their bills with 
great liberality, the insidious workings of the compro- 
mise tariff act were for a long time unperceived. General 
Jackson left the presidential chair congratulating him- 
self on the prosperous and happy condition of the 
country. But scarcely had Mr. Van Buren been inau- 
gurated (March, 1837) before the premonitory symp- 
toms of the most terrible monetary revulsion this 
country has ever experienced were felt. In fact, the 
first act of his administration was to call a special 
session of Congress, for the purpose of rendering some 
relief to the country. Such wide-spread bankruptcy 
was never witnessed. As the fruits — not the cause 
— of the rotten system of currency established by 
the policy of the administration, much wild speculation 
had been indulged in, which greatly added to the de- 
vastation and ruin brought upon the land by the con- 
tinued drain upon our precious metals, to pay the 
balances which our foreign trade continually created 
against us. Our trade, foreign and domestic, was sub- 
ject to no regulator — no regulation. The currency 
bore no relation to the intrinsic value of property, nor 
to the amount of specie in the country ; and as soon as 
the day of adjustment and settlement with the creditor 
at whose mercy our trade placed us, arrived, we found 
that both our money and our property were but fictions. 
But Mr. Van Buren met the storm with stoic cool- 
ness. He was still the exponent — many thought him 
the inventor — of Jacksonian Democracy. Both houses 
of Congress were still true to the faith. The Whigs 
urged, as means of relief, the reestablishment of the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 283 

» 

measures overthrown by Jackson ; but Mr. Van Buren 
was not diverted from the system he had for some years 
been maturing. From occasional expressions made use 
of by General Jackson, in his messages, it had for a 
long time been apparent that he or his cabinet contem- 
plated some new method of collecting and managing the 
public revenues. The scheme thus meditated was by 
Mr. Van Buren put forth in his Sub-Treasury Bill, or 
Independent Treasury, as it was" called. It was the 
main measure of his administration. It appears that 
he had investigated extensively the treasury systems 
of the little states of Europe, and framed his sub-treas- 
ury after their model. The system was based upon the 
idea that it was not the duty or business of the general 
government to furnish the country with the ordinary 
currency with which the business of the world is carried 
on ; that its duty is limited to the regulation of the basis 
of that currency — to wit, of the gold and silver. The 
new theory of Democracy was that Congress had no 
power to act beyond the letter of the Constitution 
which provides that government shall have the exclu- 
sive power of coining money ; and the provision that 
Congress shall regulate commerce was not considered 
as having a bearing upon the subject. As commerce 
could not exist with nothing but a specie currency, and 
as the safe and correct adjustment of the mixed or 
paper currency is of perhaps more vital importance 
to the American people, and more essential to their 
prosperity and happiness, than the proper regulation 
of simply one of its main or principal elements, the 
Whigs, and many of the Democratic statesmen, insisted 
that the general government should charge itself with 
the duty of exercising a control over the natural and 
25 



284 A HISTORY OP 

ordinary currency of the country. The argument is 
somewhat potent. The reason why the state legislature 
may not as well enjoy the privilege of coining specie, 
as of creating paper money, is not apparent, as legisla- 
tive abuse in the latter is more likely to occur than in 
the former kind of money. It is well to give the coin- 
age of hard money to the general government, and still 
better to give it the charge of the real currency of the 
land. 

The innovation of the new dynasty was evidently in, 
opposition to the better judgment of the leading mem- 
bers of the administration. Both houses of Congress 
were strongly Democratic ; but they repudiated, at its 
first presentation, the independent treasury scheme of 
Mr. Van Buren. The history of those days is familiar 
to the reader. It will be recollected that the rejection 
of the United States Bank charter was by veto, and in 
opposition to the majority of a strongly Democratic 
Congress. The workings of the state bank system. will 
occur to the mind of the reader. The fact that an over- 
flowing treasury, from receipts of millions from sales of 
public lands, was giving those state depositories of 
public moneys still further power of expansion, will 
not be forgotten. The forward-cast shadow of the sub- 
treasury scheme seen during Jackson's administration, 
to wit, the specie circular, as it was called, will be 
borne in mind. The astonishment with which that 
circular, which was an order to revenue officers and 
others, that pay for lands should be only received in 
specie, burst upon the country, can never pass out of 
the mind of one who lived in those days. The pro- 
priety of such a measure was tried in Congress by Mr. 
Benton, and almost unanimously rejected, although 



THE WHIG PARTY. 285 

that Congress was strongly Democratic. Still, eleven 
days after adjournment, the President, on his own 
authority, and against the advice of his cabinet, caused 
that circular to be issued. It was a preparatory step to 
the sub-treasury measure, but was taken too late. The 
previous course of the administration had favored a 
state of things that rendered the adoption of the sub- 
treasury policy revolutionary and ruinous. The revul- 
sion came, and fell upon the administration of Mr. Van 
Buren. The banks all suspended, the business of the 
country was ruined, credit destroyed, and millions of 
people who had been wealthy, or in comfortable circum- 
stances, rendered bankrupt. The country for a long 
time staggered and reeled under the malady, like a 
person prostrated from loss of blood. It was a touch- 
ing spectacle. The country was young, full of energy, 
courage and hope, and frequently brought to play all 
of her powers to arise and shake off her troubles ; but, 
as with the ambitious and impatient invalid, her faculties 
would not obey her will. Specie payments by the 
banks were only renewed for new suspensions ; manu- 
factories were closed ; exchanges destroyed ; money 
disappeared ; and the value of property depreciated 
beyond precedent. 

Mr. Van Buren had nothing but his sub-treasury to 
offer. He repudiated the idea that it was the concern 
of government to render aid or protection to the busi- 
ness interests of the country. It was asserted that 
the people had been improvident and rash in specula- 
tions., and that it was sufficient for the government to 
look out for its own revenues, without embarrassing 
itself with the . unthrifty affairs of the people. The 
administration was afflicted with the misfortunes of the 



286 A HISTORY OF 

land ; the treasury was empty ; the suspension of the 
banks closed upon the nation's money, and the officials 
of the administration were without funds for ordinary 
expenses. Revenue came in slowly and in small quan- 
tities, leaving government to its ordinary shifts in such 
cases of issuing treasury notes, and obtaining loans. 
The sub-treasury project of Mr. Van Buren was adhered 
to, and finally passed, under his administration. By 
this a divorce was proclaimed between the government 
and the people. The improvidence of the people was 
no longer to torment the government. The revenues, 
by the sub-treasury system, were to be collected in hard 
money, and kept in the hands of the agents of the gov- 
ernment, subject to the order of the Secretary of the 
Treasury. That this is a simple and safe method of 
managing the state's finances, no one will dispute. It 
is the miser's system. It is a cautious, careful, safe, and 
entirely reliable system ; without mystery, without the 
intricacy of scientific principles, and without the com- 
plications of the abstruse principles of finance. It is 
well intended to carry out the theory on which it is 
based — that is, that government has no concern with 
the business interests of the country. Despotism is the 
simplest of all governments, and republics the most 
complicated. The sub-treasury system is as old as des- 
potism, and as simple. In proportion as people .have 
emancipated themselves from despotic authority, and 
established free institutions, the ruling power has been 
administered with special reference, not to its own ease 
and security, but to that of the people. England is the 
freest government in the Old World, and consequently 
her system is intricate and complicated ; although not so 
much so as that of the still more free United States. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 287 

The stability of the English currency is due to the 
controlling wisdom of the British government, which 
has never yet, like an ancient despot, divorced itself from 
the people, or declared itself without any duty in regard 
to the regulation of commerce and currency. America 
can prosper, and has prospered, under the sub-treasury 
system. It prospered under the confederation, when we 
could hardly be said to have any government at all. 
"We get a sound specie basis from Congress, and the 
states, fortunately, usually afford a fair paper cur- 
rency. But, without the control of the general govern- 
ment, the currency, especially as the laws of trade are 
disregarded, and all authority of government over them 
is repudiated, must ever be unstable, and subject to 
revulsions. 

The sub-treasury measure, of course, w T as ably dis- 
cussed in and out of Congress. The principles of 
currency, and of the duties of our government in 
regard to it, were ably and unanswerably set forth in 
the speeches of Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster. The 
speeches of Mr. Webster upon the sub-treasury project 
are the most instructive expositions of the principles 
of currency to be found. They contain a mine of in- 
formation, and the doctrines embodied in them will 
some day burst forth, from the dust that now covers 
them, with volcanic p'ower. It cannot be that such 
men as Madison, Hamilton, Adams, Jay, Washington, 
Monroe, Crawford, Lowndes, Clay and Webster, were 
the victims of delusion in regard to these matters. It 
cannot be that the Democratic Congresses through 
which Jackson and Van Buren were unable to force 
their scheme, were the corrupt, bank-bought knaves 
25* 



288 A HISTORY OF 

that the friends of Jackson and Van Buren charged 
them to be. 

It is matter of history that the sub-treasury project, 
at its outset, found but little favor in Democratic Con- 
gresses, or among Democratic cabinets. It was an 
emanation from the brain of Mr. Yan Buren. It at all 
times had one friend ; that was Thomas H. Benton. 
He favored the sub-treasury, and its forerunner the 
specie circular. Colonel Benton, in his Thirty Years' 
Yiew, has put forth a curious history of these measures, 
and has labored, in some instances with shallow per- 
ceptions, to vindicate them. For instance, he represents 
that the great revulsion of 1837, commencing with 
bank suspensions, was the work of Nick Biddle and the 
Whigs, got up on purpose to embarrass the administra- 
tion ! For this purpose, he gravely gives accounts of 
speeches, meetings, letters, etc., which no more indicate 
such a purpose than they foreshadow a gunpowder 
plot. But what renders laughable all this lengthy 
effort in his work to prove that these revulsions were 
not the results of a really mismanaged currency, but 
the stratagems of political opponents, is the fact that 
Mr. Benton, in his same Thirty Years' Yiew, boasts 
that he himself had, the preceding year, foreseen that 
such a crash was inevitable ! Yes ; he tells us that 
upon one occasion he took the President aside to cau- 
tion him ; but, as Mr. Yan Buren treated his suggestions 
lightly, simply asking him if "he was not exalted in 
the head upon that subject ?" he was disgusted, and 
concluded that he would let his friend proceed in 
his happy ignorance. The colonel, however, says that 
he afterwards regretted that he did not overlook Mr. 
Yan Buren's levity, and expose to him the true state 



THE WHIG PARTY. 289 

of affairs. He tells us, that, from his connection with 
committees in the Senate, he had better means of infor- 
mation than the President, and has no doubt but Mr. 
Van Buren would have done justice to his statement of 
facts, had he felt like making it to him. Now, as the 
colonel knew that there was a real occasion for such 
a revulsion, from his acquaintance with the financial 
affairs of the country, his attempt to charge it upon 
the Whigs, as an affair got up by them to afflict Mr. 
Van Buren, must be thought rather a queer piece of 
business. But, as Colonel Benton was an upright man, 
and had the real interests of the country at heart, his 
visions and vanities may, at this day, be passed by 
without much comment. 

The election of Mr. Van Buren led to the restoration 
of Mr. Calhoun to the Democratic ranks. The position 
of Mr. Calhoun for some ten or twelve years had been 
unnatural and false before the people. That gentleman 
was at heart a thorough Democrat, and the great incon- 
sistencies of his political life resulted from the position 
he was forced into by the unjust and cruel quarrel 
which had been provoked between him and Jackson. 
He was Vice-President during President Jackson's first 
term, and had been powerfully instrumental of the 
general's election, and was the most prominent man 
in the party for his successor. Mr. Calhoun was an 
able statesman, and truly devoted to the interests of 
General Jackson ; but, as before has been shown, the 
general's wrath was excited against him, and a bitter 
personal quarrel ensued between those leading Demo- 
crats. Although Mr. Van Buren enjoyed the benefit 
of that rupture, was substituted for Mr. Calhoun as 
Vice-President, during Jackson's second term, and 



290 A HISTORY OF 

became the general's successor in the presidential 
office, still Mr. Calhoun was disposed to overlook and 
forgive all, for the sake of again finding repose and a 
home in the bosom of the party that he really loved, 
and from which he had thus been an exile. To favor 
his return to the favor and support of the Democratic 
party, General Jackson, at the solicitation of Mr. Van 
Buren as was supposed, issued his certificate, acquit- 
ting the latter from all complicity in the quarrel which 
had rendered Mr. Calhoun an enemy of his adminis- 
tration. The support of measures by Mr. Calhoun, 
under the administration of Mr. Van Buren, which he 
had opposed under that of Jackson, subjected his 
political life to the charge of inconsistency, which he 
could not satisfactorily defend, and which his enemies, 
not liberal enough to sympathize with him under the 
unjust and cruel usage he had received from General 
Jackson, would not overlook or excuse. Anything like 
liberality, in our view of Mr. Calhoun's course, would 
disarm criticism of much of its edge, for the heart of 
that statesman abounded in the noblest qualities. He 
was open and undisguised in his opinions and feel- 
ings, and scorned all attempts at carrying a measure 
by intrigue and circumvention. His nature was free 
from guile, and his breast was uniformly animated by 
the sentiments of truth and honor. His defence against 
the powerful and scathing attacks of Mr. Clay, after 
his espousal of the measures of Mr. Van Buren's ad- 
ministration, can never be read by a political enemy 
without inspiring feelings of respect for the true noble- 
ness of his nature, against which Mr. Clay's generous 
heart was far from being proof. The ingenuousness of 
Mr. Calhoun's disposition was ever apparent, and the fact 



THE WHIG PARTY. 291 

that he always possessed the respect and esteem of his 
opponents, is unanswerable evidence of his uprightness 
and integrity. If the machinations of Mr. Van Bnren 
were the cause of the exile of Mr. Calhoun from the 
ranks of the Democracy, the former knows now the full 
extent of the injury he has inflicted upon the latter ; as 
experience alone, it is said, can make one realize Wt 
discomfort, pain, and sufferings, of being tnus a wanderer 
from the bosom of his party. 



-** 



292 A HISTORY OF 




CHAPTER XXYI. 

CAMPAIGN OF ISAu. — HARRISON AND AVAILABILITY. — TYLER VICE- 
PRESIDENT. DEATH OP HARRISON, AND TYLER'S PRESIDENCY. — 

RESIGNATION OF THE CABINET. SUB-TREASURY, UNITED STATES 

BANK, AND' TARIFF OF 1842. WEBSTER, SECRETARY OF STATE, RE- 
TAINS HIS SEAT TILL 1842. — TREATY OF WASHINGTON, ETC., ETC. 

The presidential campaign of 1840 was a noted one. 
William Henry Harrison, whose character and history 
are well known, was elected over Martin Van Buren by 
an overwhelming majority. The election of General 
Harrison was, however, a gross mistake, and led to the 
ruin of the Whig party. Had Clay or Webster been 
nominated, either would have been elected, and Whig 
principles would have been so firmly established as to 
secure their permanent ascendency. But, as the pros- 
pects of the Whig party, for the last few years, had 
begun to look promising, many naturally rallied under 
its standard who had more regard for place than for 
political principles. Such are ever the advocates of 
availability. The principle of availability was adopted 
in the nomination of the hero of North Bend. ' 

The nomination of the hero of Tippecanoe was an act 
of injustice to such statesmen as Clay and Webster. 
They were, it may be said, the founders of the Whig 
party. From its first dawnings they had been its 
champions, and had been faithful to its principles and 
fortunes in its darkest days of adversity. To the 



THE WHIG PARTY. 293 

eloquence and devotion of those eminent statesmen 
was the Whig- party finally indebted for its triumph 
in 1840 ; and, as its prospects brightened, it was unfair 
and unmanly to thrust them aside for some leader whose 
election would be less a test of the popularity of polit- 
ical principles than of the nominee. A party that thus 
conducts offers but little encouragement to its talented 
members for devotion to its cause. It cannot be called 
a party of principle. It is a party, it is true ; but a 
party whose main and controlling- object is too apparent 
to entitle it to the confidence of an honest people. If 
the principles of a party are vital and dear to it, its 
able, tried, and faithful champions should be placed at 
its head, and there kept. With the triumph of those 
principles which their champions have enforced upon 
a doubting and distrusting people, the champions them- 
selves should triumph ; and a party taking any other 
rule for its guidance, or resorting to other means of 
success than an unshaken reliance in its principles, 
deserves to be overthrown. General Harrison was an 
estimable man, and received votes that, perhaps, would 
have been cast neither for Clay, Webster, nor Van 
Buren, and was elected as the opponent of the Demo- 
cratic party. But the Jackson Van Buren dynasty 
had become unpopular. The unsoundness of the Van 
Buren policy had been demonstrated, and the people 
— the honest masses — had passed sentence of con- 
demnation upon the sage of Lindenwold. His over- 
throw was by a popular whirlwind. There was nothing 
in the previous exploits of General Harrison to charm 
people from a sense of propriety, but enough in the 
blunders of Van Buren to drive a nation distracted. 
Clay and AVebster everywhere advocated the election 



294 A HISTORY OF 

of Harrison, and were received by the masses of the 
people, with unbounded enthusiasm, as the exponents 
of correct political principles ; and either of these gentle- 
men might have been run against Martin Van Buren 
with entire safety. But the Whig party had become 
too anxious for success, for the mere sake of success. 

There is a certain limit within which a party, in 
making its nominations, may have regard to availabil- 
ity ; but when this principle is made to slight the fun- 
damental principles of the party, and sacrifice those who 
have been its honest and faithful exponents, it can 
bring nothing but destruction in its train. In nominat- 
ing General Harrison, the feverish Whigs imitated their 
Democratic opponents in nominating General Jackson. 
The election of Jackson was a sacrifice of the ablest 
statesmen in the Democratic party, and hence the over- 
throw of that party, in 1840, and its subsequent precari- 
ous existence. When Jackson was first offered for the 
presidency, the Democracy was so powerfully in the 
ascendant that their opponents, the Federalists, scarcely 
pretended to make any opposition at the presidential 
elections. The Federal party, as it was then called, 
was almost entirely exterminated. By keeping their 
statesmen at the head of their party, the Democrats 
might have preserved their ascendency, unimpaired, for 
years ; but the new dynasty carved out by Van Buren, 
with the sword of Jackson, brought upon that party 
the calamity of 1840, — yes, and the disgrace of 1848 ! 
Unwisely, the Whigs, in 1840, followed an example 
that was destructive to them, and in twelve years their 
name was only known in history ! 

The election of General Harrison was providentially 
unfortunate to the Whigs. His death, taking place 



THE WHIG PARTY. 295 

soon after his inauguration, threw the administration 
into the hands of the Vice-President, John Tyler, who 
soon found himself at war with the Whig party. In 
the nomination of the Vice-President, also, availability 
had been studied, and the result was that, in about a 
month from the inauguration of President Harrison, a 
Democratic President was at the head of government. 
The Democracy of Mr. Tyler, however, was not so 
radical as that of Mr. Van Buren. In many things his 
administration was favorable to Whig policy ; but on 
the currency measures he entertained views hostile 
to those of the Whig party. His vetoes of United 
States Bank and Fiscal Agent bills made disturbance 
enough. The Whigs denounced him. The cabinet 
constructed by General Harrison, with the exception 
of Webster, all resigned, and the administration thence- 
forth was a mongrel concern. 

On the election of General Harrison, he called Mr. 
Webster to the head of his cabinet, in the formation 
of which he took his advice ; and Mr. Webster did not 
immediately resign his place in Mr. Tyler's cabinet, 
although, perhaps, he would have done so if he had 
been more devoted to the fortunes of the party than to 
the interests of the country. His position was not like 
that of the other members of the cabinet. He was, of 
course, disappointed at the course taken by the Pres- 
ident, in relation to the currency measures, and did, 
after about two years' service in the office of Secretary 
of State, resign his place ; but the event showed that 
an immediate resignation would have been a sacrifice 
of the highest interests of the country. The country 
was at the time on the verge of war with England. 
The controversy in regard to the North-East Boundary 
26 



296 A HISTORY OF 

had existed from the establishment of Independence, 
and, at the time in question, was threatening an issue 
in war. All remember the fearful excitement existing 
in Maine, and upon the Canadian frontier, where the in- 
habitants of the two countries were menacing each 
other with arms. To add to the excitement and danger 
of the moment, the controversies growing out of the 
Canadian rebellion were then pending, and McLeod, a 
soldier engaged in the Caroline affair, was at the time 
imprisoned in the state of New York : England, also, in 
her philanthropic zeal to stop the slave-trade, as usual, 
had taken the liberty of overhauling some of our mer- 
chant vessels upon the coast of Africa, for which this 
country was disposed to have redress. The manner 
in which Mr. Webster effected an adjustment of all 
these difficulties, by the celebrated treaty of Washing- 
ton, is well known. The settlement of the boundary 
question was itself a proud achievement in diplomacy. 
Mr. Webster's papers on the subjects of the Caroline ; 
McLeod's imprisonment ; the right of search or visit ; 
the Mexican difficulty ; the practice of impressment, etc., 
are the most masterly expositions of the laws of nations, 
upon the topics involved in those subjects, to be found 
in any language. The principles laid down in those 
papers are now looked upon, by statesmen of all parties, 
as authorities, and as such are quoted upon all suitable 
occasions. 

Although the Whigs, during the administration of 
Mr. Tyler, were unable to establish a United States 
Bank, they were successful in passing a protective tariff, 
which has since been much talked of as the tariff of 
1842 ; and they repealed the sub-treasury act. The 
tariff act of 1842 was immediately felt. Under Mr. Van 



THE WHIG PARTY. 297 

Buren's administration the excessive importations con- 
tinued until the country was prevented from the pur- 
chase of foreign goods by almost universal bankruptcy. 
The propriety of the resignation of Mr. Tyler's cabi- 
net, on his refusal to sanction the enactment of a bank 
charter, was much doubted by some of the ablest mem- 
bers of the Whig party. By that resignation there was 
no prospect of effecting anything, saving what might 
be accomplished for the service of the Whig party, and 
it is not correct for persons in official stations to de- 
termine on their course of action wholly with regard to 
party effect. Those members of the cabinet were men 
of the highest standing for ability and worth, and acted, 
no doubt, from honorable impulses ; but still it seems 
as though the interests of the country lost more than 
they gained by the course pursued. 



298 A HISTOKY OF 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

CAMPAIGN OP 1844. — HENRY CLAY AND JAMES K. POLK. — ANNEXATION 

OP TEXAS. — POLK'S ELECTION. — FREESOIL CANDIDATES. INTEREST 

OP ENGLAND IN POLK'S ELECTION. — TARIFF. OF 1842 REPEALED. — 
TARIFF OF 1846. — MEXICAN WAR THE GREAT MEASURE OF POLK'S AD- 
MINISTRATION. CREDIT GAINED BY WHIG GENERALS RECONCILED 

THE WHIG PARTY TO THE WAR. — GENERAL TAYLOR POPULAR WITH 
THE DEMOCRACY. AVAILABILITY AGAIN TRIED. POLITICAL PRINCI- 
PLES BY WHIGS BUT LITTLE MOOTED. THE ABOLITION SPIRIT AROUSED. 

VAN BUREN THE ABOLITION CANDIDATE IN 1848. CASS DEMOCRATIC 

CANDIDATE. THE FREESOILERS PUZZLED, BUT VAN BUREN GETS A 

LARGE VOTE. TAYLOR ELECTED. MILLARD FILLMORE VICE-PRESI- 
DENT. TAYLOR'S DEATH. FILLMORE PRESIDENT. W. H. SEWARD. 

HIS ONLY HOPES FOR REACHING THE PRESIDENCY THROUGH THE 

TRIUMPH OF SECTIONALISM. — INCREASE OF FREESOILISM, ETC. 

Henry Clay was the Whig candidate in 1844, and 
was defeated by James K. Polk. The campaign was a 
severe one, and the contest close. Mr. Clay received 
a very large minority of the popular vote, and was not 
defeated by fair means. His support was almost en- 
tirely native American, as one of the measures he pro- 
posed to the people during the canvass was an altera- 
tion of our naturalization laws, requiring foreigners to 
reside in this country twenty-one years before being 
permitted to enjoy the privilege of voting. The multi- 
plication of Democratic voters in the \jity of New York 
during that campaign, by fraudulent naturalizations, 
was said to have been beyond precedent. It was sup- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 299 

posed that without such naturalizations Mr. Clay would 
have been elected. Mr. Clay was also opposed to the 
annexation of Texas, and so announced himself; in con- 
sequence of which he lost much support in all parts of 
the country. The annexation of Texas was a favorite 
measure with many portions of the South, and was de- 
sired by large classes in the North. In a commercial 
point of view the annexation was highly beneficial to 
the North; and the measure was of course espoused 
with great zeal by the thousands of influential people 
of all parties who were owners of what was called Texas 
script, — a species of property that annexation would 
render valuable. The candidate of the Freesoilers, Mr. 
James G-. Birney, took votes enough of those who pro- 
fessed opposition to annexation, to have elected Mr. 
Clay ; but those professed Freesoilers were mostly very 
devout men, and had many objections to Mr. Clay. He 
had fought one or two duels, and was, moreover, a slave- 
holder. By voting for Mr. Clay, Mr. Polk and annexa- 
tion might have been defeated ; but the inexorable morals 
of the Freesoilers would not permit them to do evil that 
good might come of it. Although the same pious men 
were afterwards, by some unaccountable subtlety of the 
enemy, trepanned into the support of Fremont, they 
were not caught with their eyes shut in 1844. At that 
day the Freesoilers were not a party ; they constituted 
a faction of voters, and might, had not their consciences 
been too tender, have defeated what they have ever 
been loud in proclaiming one of the most unholy acts 
of the slavery oligarchy. No one doubts but that the 
Mexican war would have been avoided had Mr. Clay 
been elected President instead of Mr. Polk ; but here, 
perhaps, God was wiser than man, and subsequent 
26* 



300 A HISTORY OF 

events seem to indicate that the fanaticism of the Free- 
soilers was providential, and intended as an instrument- 
ality for the development of the mission of America. 

Another powerful influence brought to bear against 
the election of Mr. Clay was British gold. To say 
nothing of the disbursements in this country for elec- 
tioneering purposes from the British secret-service fund, 
the merchants and manufacturers in England openly 
subscribed money to be employed in effecting the elec- 
tion of Mr. Polk. The tariff of 1842 had checked the 
excess of importations of British fabrics, and a change 
of administration was necessary for the prosperity of 
English trade. The party which had nominated Mr. 
Polk professed to be in favor of free trade, and the mer- 
chants and manufacturers of England knew well enough 
what the policy of the United States would be under 
the administration of Mr. Clay. It was well known 
that British gold was freely made use of during the 
political campaign of 1844. But so powerful was the 
impression, on the minds of the mass of the American 
people, that the principles of the Whigs were indispen- 
sable for the prosperity of the country, that a herculean 
effort was necessary to defeat their candidate. The 
struggle was fierce, and the efforts of the combined en- 
emies of the Whig party were desperate. Tylerism 
had stripped the vantage ground attained by the Whigs 
in 1840 of all its value. Had the administration from 
1840 been a sound Whig administration, the defeat of 
that party in 1844 would not have occurred ; and, as it 
was, if the Whigs had received fair play in that cam- 
paign, Mr. Clay would have been elected, and Whig 
policy become firmly established in the country. This 
is clearly apparent from the popular vote at the elections 



THE WHIG PAETY. 301 

of 1840 and 1848, at each of which the Whig candidate 
received a majority. But the defeat in 1844 was in a 
great measure to be attributed to the ill-advised nomi- 
nation of an available candidate in 1840 ; and the repe- 
tition of that foolish policy, in 1848, had a powerful ten- 
dency to bring about the annihilation of the Whig party, 
which soon after ensued. 

The administration of Mr. Polk was Democratic. 
Texas was annexed. The greatest objection that can 
be made to the admission of that promising sister is as 
to the manner. It was thought by the Whigs that the 
movement was premature. The courtship was consid- 
ered too short. The fact is, some ardent lovers of the 
fair one proposed the union before her consent had 
been obtained ! The question of annexation, the Whigs 
thought, was pressed forward too rashly. The Whig's 
contended that the only constitutional method of acquir- 
ing new territory was by treaty. But as every treaty 
made by the President requires the approval of two- 
thirds of the Senate, it was found that the annexation 
scheme could not, through the exercise of the treaty- 
making power, be consummated. The result was that 
the admission of Texas was proposed and carried b}' a 
joint resolution of the two houses of Congress. The 
Whigs opposed this method of procedure as unconsti- 
tutional. This opposition was not factious or sectional. 
The Whig party was ever a national party. About 
every Whig senator from the slave states voted against 
the act of annexation ; but the election of Mr. Polk 
had put it out of the power of the Whigs to defeat the 
measure by veto. 

The tariff of 1842 was repealed, and its place supplied 
by the act of 1846, which is a revenue tariff, affording 



302 A HISTORY OF 

but slight if any protection to the great branches of 
American industry. The sub-treasury act was also re- 
enacted, and the country placed under the commercial 
and revenue system wrought out by Mr. Van Buren, 
and has thus remained for the past ten or twelve years. 
Had not Heaven, in its mercy, given us the hundreds 
of millions of gold from the gulches of California, in what 
condition should we now, under the operations of that 
anti-American system, find ourselves ? The excess, the 
monstrous excess of our importations indicates. Figures 
are reliable things. Bankruptcy may have been avoided ; 
but our commercial system has given Europe the great 
profits of our mines, and after the lapse of a few years 
we shall find ourselves, unless our policy be changed, 
divested of our gold, and in a state of helplessness. 

The Mexican war was the great event or measure of 
Mr. Polk's adminstration. We will not stop to examine 
the steps that led to that war. It was the perhaps 
necessary result of the annexation of Texas, and t re- 
sulted in the acquisition of California, and the territory 
of New Mexico. The administration of Mr. Polk will 
ever be memorable in the annals of the country for 
having given occasion for the great clamor about South- 
ern aggression. Not that the annexation of Texas, and 
the consequent acquisition of new territory, were accom- 
plished by the South alone ; but as the annexation pol- 
icy was regarded beneficial to the extension of slavery, 
the measure was charged to Southern machinations. It 
was immediately seen, by the Freesoilers of the North, 
that the defeat of Mr. Clay was a great mistake, and 
the prodigious events of Mr. Polk's administration gave 
new life to the anti-slavery sentiment of the free states. 
While the Mexican war was on our hands, the much 



THE WHIG PARTY. 303 

talked of Wilmot proviso doctrine took its rise ; o~ 
rather an old doctrine took a new start under that new 
name. The annexation of Texas, the stirring events 
of the Mexican war, and the acquisition of California 
and New Mexico, all transpired so suddenly that the 
enemies of these measures had hardly a chance to utter 
their protestations before they were accomplished. Ac- 
cording to Whig principles, the annexation was uncon- 
stitutional, and the commencement of the war with 
Mexico an outrage upon that republic ; but the brilliant 
manner in which that war was conducted by two favor- 
ite Whig generals reconciled the party, in a great 
measure, to those proceedings. The administration 
was annoyed at the credit accruing to Generals Taylor 
and Scott, and the Whigs were evidently elated. Out- 
cries and invectives against the war soon ceased to be 
heard in the Whig ranks, and, at the close of Polk's 
presidential term, the real issue between the two parties 
was not so apparent. The old and long-continued dis- 
cussions in regard to administrative measures had, in a 
great degree, subsided, and the Whig party, almost 
with one mind, were disposed to resort to the principle 
of availability for another party triumph. General 
Taylor, long prior to the assembling of the National 
Convention, was announced by Whigs, in all parts of 
the country, as the next candidate for the presidency. 
He was no statesman, and had no acquaintance with 
civil affairs. He was a man of moderate abilities, a 
skilful and brave general, and an upright and honorable 
man. But he was no more suitable for the presidency 
than had been Jackson or Harrison ; and, but for one 
or two splendid victories in Mexico, he would never 
have been thought of as a candidate for that office. 



304 A HISTORY OP 

However, there were many reasons why he might be 
considered an available candidate. The war was vastly 
popular with the Democracy, and his good services had 
endeared him to large numbers of the Democratic party. 
The expression was often made by Democrats that, if 
General Taylor should be nominated, they would not 
vote against him ; and many promised, in such an 
event, to give him their votes. As much support 
was expected from the ranks of the enemy, it was not 
prudent for Whigs, in their campaign, to make any 
unnecessary parade of their political principles. It was 
calculated that the general's military exploits would 
advocate his cause, and go further in softening and 
subduing the hearts of political adversaries than any 
amount of electioneering about the principles of trade 
and currency. 

The nomination of General Taylor, however, and the 
campaign that elected him, disclosed in the Whig party 
elements that bespoke its speedy dissolution. If Texas, 
New Mexico, and California, had been solid masses of 
guano, and had been placed upon the root of Freesoilism 
in the free states, they would not have proved richer 
and more active fertilizers of that noxious plant than 
were the proceedings of the administration in acquiring 
those territories. The outcry of " Southern aggression' 7 
rang through the North. Nothing else was, or has 
since, been talked of. The anti-slavery feeling was 
greatly excited, and many were forced reluctantly to 
vote for General Taylor as the least, as they considered 
it, of three evils. His opponents were General Cass 
and Martin Van Buren. As for Cass, no Whig of those 
days could vote for him, as he was regarded quite 
unsound on the slavery question. Was Van Buren 



THE WHIG PAETY. 305 

preferable to General Taylor? Strange enough, Mr. 
Van Buren was the Freesoil candidate, and supported 
by the Freesoilers of the North ! But the imagined 
change in the sentiments of that gentleman, in regard 
to slavery, struck the Whigs aghast. His political life, 
and his administration, his ultra pro-slavery administra- 
tion, as it had been designated, were fresh in the recol- 
lections of all. He had either styled himself, or had 
by his friends been styled, a Northern man with South- 
ern principles, and, while President, had, with the 
whole power of his station, done his utmost to crush 
out Freesoilism ; but, nevertheless, in 1848, he was 
nominated, at the somewhat celebrated Buffalo Conven- 
tion, as the Freesoil candidate for the presidency. 
The vote thrown for him shows how profoundly the 
Northern mind had been stirred on the question of 
slavery during Mr. Polk's administration. It was hard 
for old Whigs to support Mr. Van Buren ; but thousands 
did so. General Cass, the nominee of the Democratic 
party, was well known for his heresy on the subject of 
slavery, so that between the champion of squatter 
sovereignty, the conservatism of the slave-owning 
Whig candidate, and the pretended Freesoil convert, 
Van Buren, the anti-slavery sentiment of the North was 
puzzled to choose. It was but late in the campaign, 
and with much difficulty, that some influential Whig 
editors could be induced to give in their adhesion to 
General Taylor ; and, although the general was elected, 
the result of the ballotings was somewhat singular and 
prophetic. The two strong Whig states, for instance, of 
Massachusetts and Vermont, elected Taylor electors only 
by pluralities. In other Northern States Mr. Van Buren 
had received quite large votes. It will be recollected 



306 A HISTORY OF 

that there was not perfect harmony in the national con- 
vention that nominated General Taylor. The Freesoil 
sentiment was quite powerful, although conservatism 
prevailed. So it seems that conservatism triumphed 
amongst the people ; but that triumph, it should be 
remarked and recollected, was more owing to the pecu- 
liar character of the Freesoil nominee than to the battle 
of Buena Vista. 

The elevation of Zachary Taylor to the presidency 
was attended with the election of Millard Fillmore, of 
New York, Vice-President. The events of that admin- 
istration are too recent to require mention. President 
Taylor died soon after his inauguration, to wit, on the 
9th day of July, by which event Mr. Fillmore became 
President of the United States. It was necessary for 
Mr. Fillmore to change his cabinet, and make many 
changes of office-holders in various parts of the country. 
These changes at the time were the occasion of much 
outcry against him by a large section of the Whig 
party, and were symptoms of a schism which finally 
involved the party in ruin. In accounting for the 
course of Mr. Fillmore, we can only revert to the cir- 
cumstances and impressions of those times. 

The history of not a very aged politician, W. H. 
Seward, is pretty familiar to the generality of Americans. 
He was born in 1801, and is now less than sixty years 
of age. His father was a firm Democrat of the Jeffer- 
sonian school, and Mr. Seward was himself of the same 
politics until the revolution in Democratic measures, 
undertaken by the elevation of General Jackson. At 
that period, about 1828, Mr. Seward attached himself 
to the Whig party. Possessing an ambitious spirit, 
and wielding a somewhat vigorous pen, he soon made 



THE WHIG PARTY. 307 

himself prominent in his new position. His writings 
are well known. As to the elegance and perspicuity 
of his style not many will disagree. He is principally 
characterized for a speculative turn of thought, and 
is very pleasing to those who suffer themselves to be 
floated along in the current of his speculations. But to 
those who are accustomed to analyze and weigh a 
writer's positions before giving them acceptance, Mr. 
Seward's productions are more regarded and admired 
for their originality and ingenuity, than for their depth 
and soundness. His organization is not that of a 
statesman. No man can be a safe counsellor for the 
state whose mental and moral constitution is such as 
to render facts, in his deliberations, subordinate to 
theory. The statesman should avail himself of the aids 
of the theologian, the philosopher, and the casuist ; but 
he should be neither. If a theologian, his sect will, 
unquestioned, accept his views, which others might 
disregard. If a philosopher, one school might admire, 
while another would denounce, his positions. Perhaps 
Mr. Seward has shown himself more of a philosopher 
and sectarian than a statesman, and, as the result, his 
political opinions are only acceptable to a particular 
class of a single section of the country. His system 
of state policy, which he thinks would benefit one part 
of the country, would involve another in blood and 
desolation. 

For several years Mr. Seward was a consistent con- 
servative Whig, and supported such men as Clay and 
Harrison for the presidency. His first public life com- 
menced in 1830, when he was elected to the Senate of 
his native state. In this election he wa's aided by the 
anti-masonic spirit, which was at that time quite active. 
27 



J 



308 A HISTORY OF 

Later, in 1831, and also in 1839, he was elected Gover- 
nor of New York ; and, in 1849, was, by the New York 
Legislature, elected to the United States Senate, and to 
that station was reelected in 1855. For some years 
past, Mr. Seward has been noted for his strong anti- 
slavery principles and feelings. Many of the leading 
Whigs, especially those who have sympathized with 
him in his views on the subject of slavery, have been 
desirous of his nomination for the presidency. That 
Mr. Seward has partaken of that desire has been 
quite apparent. There has been to his eyes no reason 
why he might not aspire to a station which the influence 
of his native state was mainly instrumental in filling 
with Mr. Van Buren. The favorite of that mighty state 
has no occasion to blush for his ambition for presiden- 
tial honors. Mr. Seward led in the van of the party 
that overthrew Van Burenism in New York, and why 
not himself aspire to the fortunes which the influence 
of that state has been able to open to her sons ? But 
the admirers and followers of that gentleman, although 
a controlling portion of the late Whig party, never saw 
a time when they supposed they could present his 
name for nomination with any prospect of success. 
His great theme has been anti-slavery for many years. 
On account of his ultra and impracticable notions about 
negroes, Mr. Seward has been able to count on no 
supporters at all in the slave states, and reliably upon 
none but the abolitionists in the North. For his eleva- 
tion to the presidency there seems no hope while the 
states remain united. If all the free states could be 
brought to act sectionally, and unite on a candidate, 
perhaps the slavery issue might open the way to the 
presidency for Mr. Seward ; or, if there should be 



THE WHIG PARTY. 309 

a separation of states, in consequence of the slavery- 
question, Mr. Seward, of course, would be the control- 
ling" genius of the Northern republic, and his prominent 
friends would be placed in all its principal offices. 
For a few years past the South have looked upon Mr. 
Seward as Mr. Calhoun was sometimes, in his latter 
days, regarded by the North. Some of our Northern 
people thought that in case of a Southern republic, Mr. 
Calhoun saw the prospect for station and honors which 
the Union absolutely barred from his reach. He had 
made himself sectional, it was said, and forever forfeited 
all confidence of an entire portion of the country. Al- 
though many think that Mr. Seward's course has a ^J 
powerful tendency to produce disunion, perhaps it is 
not just to charge him with such intentions. He may 
have hopes of elevation by means short of the creation 
of a Northern republic. If he can produce the union 
of the free states, as above suggested ; if he can bring 
the non-slaveholding states to a united action, through 
the instrumentality of his favorite hobby, anti-slavery, 
he may yet attain the summit of his glory in the Union. 
It is true, such an achievement, every sound-minded 
man must say, would be the ruin of the country ; but 
we need not necessarily conclude that Mr. Seward is 
of this opinion. He may be innocent in thinking that 
the presidential elections should turn on the slavery 
question ; that it is the duty of the North to combine 
(they being the largest portion of the country), and 
take the United States government into their own 
hands. He may think that this is not only safe for the 
country but likewise just and expedient. We cannot 
pronounce as to his motives, but, as to his judgment, it 
is not only our right, but our duty, to speak our opinion. 



J 



310 A HISTORY OF 

Although we cannot pronounce Mr. Seward corrupt 
for his political views, we may be permitted to say that 
we regard him and his course exceedingly dangerous to 
the Union. Just such an attempt to unite the free 
states upon a sectional candidate, as alluded to, was 
tried by his friends and followers in 1856, and the 
inauguration speech of that gentleman, made at Albany, 
upon the occasion of instituting the Republican party, 
in 1855, is still ringing in the ears of the American peo- 
ple. It is recollected how the duties of the North were 
pointed out in that speech, and how our Southern fellow- 
citizens were described. Slaveholders, Mr. Seward 
labored to instruct us, are a privileged, a dangerous 
class, whose existence in our government must be dan- 
gerous to free institutions ; and the idea was impressed 
upon us that the people of the North should cherish or 
cultivate jealous feelings in regard to them. The 
speech is spoken of from recollection, not having been 
seen by us since its first appearance in print ; but we 
can never forget the impression it made at the time, 
and cannot well mistake its purport.* But the purity 

* Since the above was -written, Mr. Seward has arrested public 
attention by his ultra positions in regard to the slavery question. In 
his speech delivered at Rochester, New York, on the twenty-fifth of 
October, he deliberately announced that " either the cotton and rice 
fields of South Carolina, and the sugar plantations of Louisiana, will 
ultimately be tilled by free labor, and Charbston and New Orleans 
become the marts for legitimate merchandise alone, or else the rye- 
fields and wheat-fields of Massachusetts and New York must again be 
surrendered by their farmers to slave culture and the production of 
slaves, and Boston and New York become once more markets for 
trade in the bodies and souls of men." 

This position of Mr. Seward, so deliberately taken, and worded 
with such clearness, care and emphasis, is worthy of the reader's 



THE WHIG PARTY. 311 

of the conception and birth of that Republican party 
can be estimated from the fact that its first candidate 

most serious reflection, as it but embodies the sentiment of vast 
numbers of Northern people, who are really of the opinion that the 
South are endeavoring to extend slavery into the North. There was 
a time when the Freesoilers of the North professed that they had no / 
desire to meddle with slavery in the states where already established ; 
but the above position of Mr. Seward would indicate that he is the ^/ 
champion of universal emancipation. If he really believes that the 
only method of preserving Massachusetts and New York from 
" becoming markets for trade in the bodies and souls of men " is by 
abolishing slavery in South Carolina and Louisiana, can we doubt 
that he is, in the strictest sense of the word, an abolitionist? If not 
an abolitionist, why does he so forcibly inculcate opinions and senti- 
ments which can influence to nothing but the most radical abolition- 
ism ? Mr. Seward, it must be recollected, is a senator of one of the 
most powerful states of the Union, and may fairly be regarded as the 
leader of the party to which he belongs. There is nothing novel in 
his language ; the orators and editors of his party have continually, 
'for several years past, urged upon the Northern people the same 
views and sentiments. The more intelligent reader may say that 
such positions as those alluded to are absurd ; that we are not seri- 
ously to believe that the continuance of negro-servitude in the South 
is to result in the establishment of slavery in New England. But 
how is this with the great mass of the Northern people ? There are 
millions who seriously believe that they must exert themselves, or 
slavery will be introduced into the North ! The activity of the 
stump, the press and the pulpit, for a fewyears past, in misrepresent- 
ing the objects, efforts and characters, of Southern people, has been 
marvellous. There is no ridiculous pretence which a political mounte- 
bank can attribute to a slaveholder that will not find ready credence 
in the North. And it is to the stunted, obtuse, bigoted, fanatical, 
ignorant, jaundiced, self-righteous and self-conceited millions of such 
in the North that Mr. Seward, and others of his kidney, address 
such propositions as we have quoted above. It is not expected that 
they will make any impression on sane and intelligent minds ; but 
the empire of such men is in the hearts of the victims of fraud and 
fanaticism. 

27* 



312 A HISTORY OF 

for the presidency was selected solely on the ground 
of availability. The party itself was sufficiently ani- 
mated b}' the opinions and spirit of Seward, and was 
justly regarded as an organization to promote the anti- 
slavery feelings and doctrines of the North ; but the 
most eloquent, talented and long-tried champions of 
Freesoilism were, at the very first presidential campaign, 
ignored, and a talented and sprightly young Southern 
Democrat, famous for anything but zeal in the cause of 
anti-slavery, was put upon the track. 

The acquiescence of the leading organs and mouth- 
pieces of Mr. Seward, in General Tajdor's nomina- 
tion, had not been cheerful and with alacrity, although 
their support was finally accorded to him. As Mr. 
Seward's friends represented the Freesoil wing of the 
Whig party, their support of Taylor looked like a sacri- 
fice ; and, on the general's ascendency to the presiden- 
tial chair, he was made aware of the vast importance of 
recognizing the power that had so graciously or ungra- 
ciously made him President ; and the result was that in 
the appointments Mr. Fillmore had but little voice or 
influence. If this was so, removals, on the death of 
President Taylor, would become quite natural. 

But, during the administration of Taylor and Fill- 
more, Freesoilism increased rapidly throughout the 

North, is deliberately put forth by a senator of the United States, and 
is hailed as a grateful and worthy speech, by millions of Northern 
people, Avho heartily respond to every word, we think that it is time 
for the patriot — the true lover of his country — to open his eyes. 
No one, with the dimmest vision, can fail to see to what such political 
agitations are tending. The issue, as presented by the above extract 
from Mr. Seward's speech, is emphatically and essentially a disunion 
issue. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 313 

North. It was the duty of their administrations to 
frame laws for the new territories acquired by the Mex- 
ican war, and to receive into the Union California. 
The subjects connected with the new territories, al- 
though the fruits of the administration of Mr. Polk, 
were left for the management and disposal of the Whigs, 
and were the cause of great commotion and strife. The 
Whig party, so called, had triumphed under Taylor; 
but it stood over an abyss. The old party issues were 
fading from the minds of the people, and a new one of 
fearful omen making its appearance. A glance at the 
steps of the spirit of disorganization, then gnawing 
upon the vitals of the Whig party, is all that is requi- 
site ; the history is pretty minutely familiar to all. 



314 A HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1852 THE LAST WHIG CAMPAIGN. — CAUSES OF THE RUIN 
OF THE WHIG PAKTY. — SLAVERY ISSUE. — PBOPAGATION OF ANTI- 
SLAVERY FEELINGS IN THE NORTH. — HATRED OF SLAVERY APPLIED 

TO NEGRO SERVITUDE BY THE IGNORANT. ALIENATION OF THE 

NORTH FROM THE SOUTH. — FUGITIVE LAWS OF 1793 AND 1850, ETC. 

The campaign of 1852 was the last presidential one 
that saw the Whigs in the field as a national party. 
After an existence of about twenty-five years, that 
party was broken up and dissolved into thin air by the 
disorganizing touch of fanaticism. The causes that 
promoted the growth of this fanaticism have been 
alluded to. To secure place, to enjoy the spoils of 
office, to attain honors and power, political parties at 
length seized hold of the jealousy which the dissimi- 
larity of the institutions of two great sections of the 
country have given rise to, and made it the basis of 
party action. It was foreseen, at the formation of our 
government, that slavery was to be the rock on which 
our institutions were to wreck. To bring our national 
vessel upon this rock has ever been the aim of internal 
and external enemies, and already she has, on several 
occasions, experienced very narrow escapes from their 
efforts. The future looks discouraging. Human nature 
has been the same in all ages of the world. From our 
knowledge of what man has ever been, we can form a 
tolerably accurate estimate of what may be expected of 



THE WHIG PARTY. .315 

him hereafter. The motives and passions that swayed 
him two thousand years ago will influence him now ; 
and we may rest perfectly assured that no god has 
yet bestowed on him that wisdom, and prudence, and 
self-constraint, the lack of which ever has been the 
cause of his ruin and degradation. Fanaticism, of 
course, is a species of madness. It has been the ruin 
of every free people that has ever existed. When 
people are seized with a peculiar idea that takes com- 
mand of their minds, they lose their reason, and 'can 
no longer act with prudence. There is no compromise 
with a fanatic ; he is a monomaniac ; he will have his 
insane idea gratified, or encounter the consequences. 
Ordinarily the result has been the ruin of the madman. 
Centuries ago it was uttered as a proverb, Quern 
deus vult perdere, prius dementat: that those whom 
God would destroy, he first renders fanatical. 

The last presidential election saw the people of the 
United States divided at the polls upon no question but 
that of slavery ! The patriotic statesman expressed 
himself alarmed at such a spectacle,, to be laughed at 
as a fool by those who constantly pray for the destruc- 
tion of the Union ! The men of the North have become 
too pure to worship and vote with the men of the South. 
Is it strange they should be impatient to be cut entirely 
adrift from such monsters as they are now disposed to 
think slaveholders to be? The last President was 
elected nearly by the votes of a section of the country, 
although belonging to a different section from the one 
mainly instrumental in his election. The day may come 
when our elections will be purely sectional. But we 
have no disposition to speak much of the present or 
future. Our chief lessons are in the past. 



316 A HISTORY OF 

At the formation of our Union, the whole subject of 
slavery, as our worthy Revolutionary statesmen and 
patriots thought, was fully and finally settled by the 
compromises in the Constitution. It was then hoped 
that that fiend of discord was allayed forever. It was 
early declared by all parts of the country that what was 
yielded to slaveholders by the Constitution they should 
enjoy. Quite a minority in the North are willing now 
that the compromises of the Constitution should be 
faithfully observed. As this was the general feeling of 
our Northern people in the early and purer days of our 
republic, there was no possible chance for making a 
party question out of slavery. The Constitution cov- 
ered the whole ground. There was no point at which 
slavery could be attacked save through the Constitution, 
and the people of those days had a sacred regard for 
that instrument. The voice of the British agitator was 
heard in America, and an anti-slavery sentiment was 
awakened in the hearts of thousands ; but that senti- 
ment never found vent in the politics of the country 
until 1820, when Missonri was admitted as a state into 
the Union. 

At the achievement of our independence, at the close 
of the Revolutionary war, which resulted in the peace 
of 1183, all of the unoccupied territories in the confed- 
eration were in the possession of the Southern States. 
The great North-western Territory then belonged to Vir- 
ginia ; and soon after the formation of the Union, the 
purchase of Louisiana gave us all of Texas ; so that, 
under the administrations of our early Presidents, it is 
apparent that there could have been but little made by 
agitating the subject of slavery in the territories. Vir- 
ginia, prior to the adoption of the Constitution, ceded 



THE WHIG PARTY. 317 

all of the North-west Territory to the general govern- 
ment, under a restriction that it was to be forever ex- 
empt from slavery. Texas, a territory purchased with 
Louisiana in 1803, and devoted to slavery by local laws, 
was by Mr. Monroe ceded away in 1819, thus divesting 
the South of wide domains well adapted to their institu- 
tions. Thus far the South had made no aggressions on 
the North ! In fact, the imperial states of the Great 
West were formed from territories originally belonging* 
to the Southern States ; and it was not until Missouri 
asked for admission that the religious and humane feel- 
ing of the North burst forth in a clamor against receiv- 
ing into the Union any more slave states. No leakage, 
no crevasse, however slight, is safe in the dike that 
forms a barrier to long pent up and agitated floods. 

But, notwithstanding the barrenness of the slave con- 
troversy while limited to constitutional grounds, the 
subject of slavery has never ceased, from the origin of 
our government to the present time, to be a constant 
theme of sermon, prayer, lecture, alms, or anathema, 
amongst the masses of the Northern people. The old 
emancipation and colonization movements were common 
to Northern and Southern people, the former doing most 
by way of prayer, the latter by contributions and sacri- 
fices. While all sections were harmonious and worked 
together upon the subject, much good was accomplished. 
Thousands of slaves were emancipated and conveyed to 
Liberia ; and the interchange of sympathies, views, and 
labors, led to valuable improvements in the South of the 
condition of those remaining in bondage. But these 
good services were destined soon to end. 

That there were in New England bitter haters of the 
South at an early period of our government, has already 



318 A HISTORY OF 

been shown ; but the change of feeling amongst the 
masses of Northern men, in regard to Southern institu- 
tions, by which enmity to the South has become more 
general in the North, has been the work of time. Un- 
fortunately for the prevalence of sound views on the 
subject of slavery, the great body of the people of the 
Northern States are unacquainted with the institution, 
and know comparatively nothing of slaves, or of what 
they gain or lose by their servitude. They draw their 
sentiment of anti-slavery directly from God, and acquire 
it at their birth. We know this from our own Northern 
birth. We do not allow ourselves to discuss the ques- 
tion as to the rightfulness of slavery ; we know it is 
wrong. We will not insult our understandings by 
doubting the great enormity of so foul a thing as hu- 
man bondage. Abhorrence of slavery comes into our 
hearts as naturally as breath into our nostrils, and we 
have nothing to do throughout our whole lives but de- 
nounce the monster. In this we are not singular. Re- 
verse our circumstances with the people of the South, 
and they would do the same. In 1*1*16 no fiercer words 
in condemnation of slavery were coined by anybody 
than by the patriots of the South. The Declaration of 
Independence was drawn by a slaveholder. In regard 
to detestation of slavery, there is no difference between 
the people of the North and South ; they are both from 
the same stock, and in the veins of both runs the same 
blood. But these sections differ widely in their feel- 
ings in regard to negro servitude. The people of the 
North have long cultivated their anti-slavery sentiment 
unmodified by any knowledge, or scarcely inquiry, as 
to what negro slavery really is ; and while the people 
of the South have abated no jot of their love of liberty, 



THE WHIG PAETY. 319 

their daily and intimate knowledge of the native inca- 
pacity of negroes for the enjoyment, of civil liberty, rec- 
onciles them to the continuance of a species of servitude 
which contains not a single element of the slavery so 
odious to the Northern heart. It is only the illiterate, 
illiberal, and bigoted ultra of the North that consigns 
all the slaveholders of the South to infamy, pronouncing 
them all to be wicked and vile for holding negroes in 
bondage. Still, too few in the free states are disposed 
to concede that religion, morality, and virtue, can flour- 
ish in what are called the slave states. There is in the 
North a woful misapprehension upon the subject of negro 
servitude and Southern society. The fact that the South- 
ern people are humane, virtuous, high-minded, liberal, 
and upright, is not appreciated ; and that the millions of 
helpless negroes of the South have no hope for elevation 
and happiness saving through subordination to their 
Southern masters, is not considered or known ; and the 
fact that negro bondage in the Southern States has 
already accomplished more for the welfare and happiness 
of the negro race than has ever before been wrought 
out for him upon earth since his creation, is with fanat- 
ical hysterics denied or not admitted. The fact is, the 
people of the North have condemned their Southern 
brethren as slaveholders, and attach to them all the 
odium their hearts have ever felt for slavery. 

The propagation of an ultra anti-slavery feeling 
amongst the people of the North has been going for- 
ward for many years, from various motives, and in va- 
rious methods, many of which have already been alluded 
to. It is not strange that much delusion upon the sub- 
ject should exist, especially in the extreme North, where 
but little is known of negro slavery or of the negro 
28 



320 A HISTORY OF 

race. The people of the North are progressive. They 
are a reading, inquiring, and reforming people. There 
are a few subjects that have, it is true, received more 
than ordinary attention at their hands ; but it must not 
be inferred from this that the Northern people are indif- 
ferent to things in general. The subject of slavery has 
been one of their specialities ; to this they have given 
uncommon attention in their way. There are a few 
other subjects also that have been extensively agitated 
in New England, and among them temperance and cap- 
ital punishment may be named. Scarcely does a North- 
ern child leave his cradle, before he is embarked upon 
the limitless ocean of discussion upon such topics as 
before named, and slavery is the first and last that is 
found engaging his heart and understanding. Not only 
is the subject discussed over the newspaper at the fire- 
side, but the boy's first effort at composition is upon 
the most thrilling of all subjects, to wit, slavery ; as 
the current and household ideas of the day upon this 
topic will flow when the poor lad would be mute upon 
most others. Declamations in the schools, also, are 
generally upon that subject ; and slavery has been the 
standing and never-ending subject for debating societies 
for time out of mind. The youthful mental faculties 
of Northern people for over half a century have been 
disciplined on that subject. If there is any theme on 
which the New England mind is active, and the tongue 
glib and eloquent, it is upon this. The same stereo- 
typed ideas have passed through generations, and by 
the cultivation of constant exercise are kept lively and 
inspiring. This must necessarily be so. It is impossible 
to chain down the faculties of an active mind. The 
poverty and laborious lot of millions of our country- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 321 

men preclude their research and investigation into sub- 
jects requiring a preliminary education, and the knowl- 
edge which reading and science can alone supply ; and 
consequently the native activity and vivacity of their 
mental energies must be brought into play upon topics 
upon which reason can act with but little aid save a resort 
to its own resources. Not only to such, but likewise to 
many a poverty-stricken intellect in the schools, the 
question of slavery is a god-send, affording a theme for 
composition or declamation when no other subject can 
" start a spirit." Many a schoolboy debater has shown 
his nascent oratorical powers in depicting the stripes 
and chains and other standing accompaniments of sla- 
very ; and, from the renown won in such exercises, been 
promoted to the pulpit, or to the station of a travelling 
lecturer for some anti-slavery society. No clergyman 
reaches the sacred desk without more or less use of this 
subject for the exercise of his faculties. And there is 
but one manner in which slavery is uniformly treated by 
such young and old orators. It is made the subject of 
declamation. All such efforts are highly drawn pictures 
of the horrors of slavery, produced for effect. Not only 
this, but no sooner does the schoolboy find that he can 
put ideas together upon paper, than some village print 
groans under a lucid exposition upon this fruitful topic 
from his pen. Thus, by orators, editors, and poets, all 
the outrages by slave owners ever committed are col- 
lected together, and with passion-breathing accents 
pressed upon Northern auditors and readers ; and it 
would not be at all strange if upon this subject the 
minds of the Northern people were tolerably united. 
But the slightest glance shows that the Northern mind, 
in arriving at its present position on the question of 



322 A HISTORY OF 

negro slavery, has been educated wholly by its feelings. 
It has never been informed upon the real merits of the 
subject. We all know this very well, as we can reflect 
back upon the earlier period of our lives, and recollect 
the accounts uniformly given us by our teachers of 
Southern slavery. Was our childhood ever notified of 
a single bright spot in it ? Were we ever told that 
such a thing as a good slaveholder could exist ? Did 
we ever imagine that a slave could utter anything but 
groans, or that the poor negro's life could be anything 
but an unintermitted torture ? Let us revert in recol- 
lection to the accounts of slavery in the South that the 
books and papers our teachers used to place before us 
presented to us. We even see now, in memory, the 
pictures in our Sabbath-school books of the poor blacks, 
with manacled hands outstretched to heaven, with woe 
and agony depicted upon their countenances. No 
glimpse of the exact truth in regard to the matter ever 
entered the mind of the Northern youth ; but the whole 
subject, from some cause or other, has been shrouded 
with an impenetrable cloud of error and falsehood. We 
demand to know by what Northern writer, teacher, 
or lecturer, for the past fifty years, the youth of New 
England have been instructed that of the millions of 
negroes in servitude in the South, the great mass are 
contented, happy, well cared for, and enjoying every 
blessing their natures are susceptible of? Who has 
taught that the highest happiness the negro has ever 
known upon earth, has, beyond all controversy, been 
realized in Southern servitude ? Where is now the 
Northern lecturer, editor, teacher, or divine, that will 
admit that the overthrow of Southern slavery would be 
the ruin of the comfort, civilization, and happiness of 



THE WHIG PARTY. 323 

those millions of negroes now in bondage ? When and 
by whom were we ever told that the Southern people 
are a civilized, polished, humane, and Christian people ? 
And, in speaking evil of them, when were we ever 
rebuked for bearing false evidence against our neigh- 
bor ? 

The history of the progress of the sentiment of anti- 
slavery in the North is familiar to all. Many events in 
that history have been alluded to. A revolution in the 
feelings of the Northern people has been gradually, but 
surely, going on, — a revolution that will bring with it 
important consequences to mankind. It is a revolution 
that will change the face of affairs in the moral and 
political world. The dismemberment of the American 
Republic will restore legitimacy throughout the whole 
earth, and this dismemberment can only be achieved 
through the agency of Northern feeling upon the sub- 
ject of slavery. The process by which foreign enemies of 
Republicanism are accomplishing this has been pointed 
out, and any one can see the fruits of their labors. 
The revolution is progressing. The Northern churches 
first withdraw their fellowship and connection with those 
of the South. To hold slaves is pronounced sinful ; a 
gulf is to be interposed between the Northern and 
Southern Christian. The Northern Christian smites his 
breast, and thanks. God that he is better than his 
Southern brother, with whom he deems it a sin to com- 
mune. Other religious societies are crumbling beneath 
the breath of the fiend of civil discord, and every day 
the fierce purity of the North is pouring its destructive 
and wrathful bolts into the South ; and so outrageous is 
the hatred of the South in the hearts of Northern Chris- 
tians, that that unhappy part of the world is hardly 
28* 



324 A HISTORY OF 

considered worthy of a missionary's care, hardly con- 
sidered worth saving. 

But, passing over the invidious designs and means 
by which the enemies of our institutions are working 
their destruction, we will note some of the evidences 
of the progress of the fatal revolution which is going 
on amongst us. For years after the formation of our 
Union the compromises of the Constitution were re- 
garded as sacred, and no one thought of refusing obedi- 
ence. The right of holding slaves was recognized, as 
well as the right of all the states and territories to 
import slaves, at least until the year 1808. The Con- 
stitution preserved to the people of the states and 
territories the right of carrying on the slave-trade for 
twenty years after its adoption, which would indicate 
that by that instrument slavery was not viewed as a local 
institution. The Constitution also provided that if one 
held to labor in one state should escape into another, 
he should not be discharged from such service by any 
laws of the state into which he should flee ; but, on 
demand, be surrendered up. The provision was plainly 
penned, and was inserted in the Constitution for the 
protection of the owners of slaves. During the admin- 
istration of President Washington, a fugitive law, as it 
has been called, was enacted by Congress, by which 
negroes escaping into free states were arrested and 
carried back to their masters. To this law there was 
no objection for years. In fact, the escape, or attempt 
at escape, of a slave — a full-blooded negro slave — is 
a rare occurrence, save when enticed by the deceptive 
wiles of abolitionists. For many years the fugitive law 
was rarely called for. The escape of slaves, never very 
large in proportion to the number in the South, was 



THE WHIG PARTY. 325 

always very small until systematic efforts for running 
them off were instituted by a set of men who have 
made themselves rich out of the pockets of deluded 
Northern people. Coeval with the outburst of radical 
abolition, with the construction of those under-ground 
railroads for decoying away slaves from their owners, 
the Northern States began to pass laws in contraven- 
tion of the fugitive law of 1793. This law prescribed 
the manner of procedure in apprehending the fugitive, 
looking to the use of the officers of the law, sheriffs, 
jailers, and so forth, of the several states. The legis- 
latures of the free states did not, in terms, nullify the 
letter of the law of 1793, but they passed laws forbid- 
ding the use of their jails for the purposes specified in 
that law, and forbidding the state officers, under heavy 
penalties, from aiding in the arrest of a fugitive. Prob- 
ably every free state passed such laws, and many 
states made repeated enactments upon the subject. 
The result was that the law of 1793 became a dead 
letter. The enactment stood, but the agencies, by 
which the Congress of ; 93 supposed they had provided 
for its execution, were paralyzed. In effect, the law 
for restoring fugitives was nullified. All this occurred, 
in the extreme Northern States, many years ago, and 
before the South had begun to feel alarmed for their 
safety, and make the horrid aggressions on the North 
of which we have recently heard so much. What was 
the occasion of this attack on the constitutional right 
of the South ? The Constitution says, plainly and ex- 
plicitly, that such fugitive escaping into a neighboring 
state shall, on demand, be given up. Now, is it com- 
plying with that Constitution for a state not only to 
refuse to surrender such fugitive, but to pass penal 



326 A HISTORY OP 

laws for the prevention of its officers in aiding in such 
surrender ? Is it honest for sensible Northern men to 
pretend that such legislative acts are not in open defi- 
ance of the constitutional rights of the slave states ? 
It is true that there are shallow, sophistical knaves, 
who sometimes pretend that the word used in the Con- 
stitution for fugitives does not mean slaves ; but for 
every honest man it is sufficient to know that the 
Supreme Court of the United States, as well as the 
highest courts in such states as Massachusetts and 
New York, have pronounced that provision in the Con- 
stitution to relate to slaves ; and every man of common 
sense and common honesty must see and, at once, 
admit this. But what Northern lecturer or editor, 
while enlarging upon the subject of Southern encroach- 
ments, ever mentions this palpable and flagrant outrage 
upon the clear rights of the South ? The man that, for 
a moment, moved by conscience, should presume to 
suggest that the people of the North had been in error 
upon the subject, would be quite universally stigmatized 
as a dough-face and a pro-slaveryite. But one side ever 
has or ever will be heard in the North. The Northern 
mind is fixed upon the subject, and fixed by fraud and 
falsehood. But the despots of Europe know the force 
of fixed ideas. The human heart loves a falsehood, 
when adopted, as ardently as it does a truth. If any 
one doubts this, let him attempt to reason with a fol- 
lower of Mahomet, Joe Smith, or Lloyd Garrison. 

When the intrigues of Europe commenced the anti- 
slavery enterprise in the North, there was but a narrow 
field for political action. The District of Columbia was 
the only territory we had in which slaves could be held, 
and the fierce crusade against the institutions of that 



THE WHIG PARTY. 327 

district is well remembered. In those days the South 
was the party attacked, vilified, and outraged. On 
slight pretexts, the enemies of the country took occa- 
sion in the South to blacken the North, and in the 
North to traduce the South. All remember how, by 
degrees, the sensitiveness of the Northern mind upon 
the subject of slavery was increased, and how politi- 
cians, lecturers, authors, and editors, began to avail 
themselves of that sensitiveness to advance their selfish 
purposes. Northern legislatures, year after year, for 
a long series of years, have constantly put forth strong 
resolutions denouncing slavery and slaveholders. These 
resolutions, many of them, have been of the most in- 
sulting kind, and forwarded to the executives of South- 
ern states, seemingly for no purpose but insult. The 
country for years has been overrun with anti-slavery 
lecturers, whose sole mission it has been to abuse the 
Southern people. Miserable negroes and negro-wenches 
have repeated to Northern audiences the committed 
slang compiled from abolition writings ; and dishonest, 
swindling white lecturers, male and female, have, year 
after year, poured into Northern ears their slandering 
falsehoods about the South ; and all this has been done 
not to show the propriety of political action as to slavery, 
but to embitter the feelings of the men, women, and chil- 
dren of one section of the country against another. The 
object of the work has been to produce an alienation of 
feeling between the North and the South. Those care- 
less and unreflecting or unsuspecting men and women of 
the North, who have professed that they had no desire 
to interfere with slavery in the states where it exists, 
have listened complacently to the foul fiends whose 
mission it has been to sow the seeds of dissension and 



328 A HISTORY OF 

anarchy in their hearts. False accounts have been 
uniformly given of Southern institutions. The lectures 
repeated to Northern auditors have uniformly been 
tissues of exaggeration or lies ; and the feelings pro- 
duced by them in the hearts of Northern people have 
been, in the highest degree, unjust to their Southern 
friends. And editors are now almost universally com- 
mitted against the South. Unless the newspaper minis- 
ters to the diseased feeling of the Northern mind, upon 
the subject of slavery, it will find but slim support. 
Journals, that twenty years ago were national and con- 
servative, now freely devote themselves to the abuse 
of the Southern people. Such could be mentioned, 
but every reader knows the fact. We see in such 
journals the fiercest invectives against slaveholders as 
such ; and purely for the purpose of arraying the North 
against the South, of carrying forward the great work 
of embittering one section against another, of making 
the North hate the South, Southern advertisements for 
runaway slaves, and for the auction of slaves, are freely 
copied into their columns, and sent abroad amongst the 
Northern people. There can be but one object in such 
a course, and that has been to increase the ill-feeling 
between the two sections of the country. And authors 
and writers of fiction have gathered a rich harvest from 
the matured enmity existing in the North against the 
the South, and are doing their part to forward the work 
of alienation. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 329 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE ACQUISITION OF NEW TERRITORY OCCASIONED THE INCREASE OF 
FREESOILISM. ACTION OF THE SOUTH. SECESSION MEDITATED. 

j. c. calhoun's speech and position. — controversies in regard 

to california, new mexico and utah. the wilmot proviso. 

disunion imminent. compromise measures of mr. clay. 

Webster's seventh of march speech. — California prefers free- 
labor. SLAVERY FOUND TO BE A QUESTION OF CLIMATE. COM- 
PROMISE MEASURES PASS. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. — NEW ENG- 
LAND OFFENDED AT WEBSTER FOR FAVORING THAT LAW- CHANGE OF 

THE POPULAR MIND, AND THE ANCIENT FEELING ON THE SUBJECT, 
ETC. 

The election of General Taylor, in 1848, was, for the 
Whigs, the fortunate result of a singular combination 
of circumstances. The events of Mr. Polk's adminis- 
tration had deeply stirred the anti-slavery feeling of the 
North ; but that feeling, owing to the peculiar nomina- 
tions of the different parties, was wasted like useless 
steam. Mr. Van Buren was the best abolitionist offered 
to the anti-slavery men of the free states ! But the 
long-cherished anti-slavery sentiment of the North 
was soon aroused into unwonted activity. It was at 
once decided, by old and by young, by men and by 
women, that the new territories must be free. The 
question of the freedom of the territories was, in the 
free states, of course, magnified into vast importance ; 
and, as the free-state party was the largest, the South 



330 A HISTORY OF 

at once imagined herself divested of her rights in 
property acquired by the blood of her sons. 

The newly-aroused crusade in the North against 
slavery in the territories, or the admission of more 
slave states, provoked the indignation of the South. 
The idea that the people of New England should dic- 
tate to the people of a territory or state, as to their 
domestic institutions, was to Southern people repul- 
sive and exciting. The course taken by the South, in 
consequence of that pursued by the North, is well 
recollected. The Southern manifesto, signed by forty- 
two members of Congress ; the Southern Convention at 
Nashville ; the establishment of the Southern Press at 
Washington to advocate secession ; and the open 
organization of a plan of secession and disunion by 
some of the Southern people, are recollected as features 
of the history of those times. The excitement in the 
South was intense, and the country was regarded as in 
uncommon peril. The factions in both the North and 
the South were aroused into energetic action, and 
seemed inspired with a common purpose — to wit, the 
overthrow of the Union. And this long-meditated 
purpose of the enemies of the American Union seemed 
in a fair way of accomplishment. The North was, it 
appeared, on the point of excluding slavery from the 
territories by legislation ; and the South, it was well 
known, would never submit to what she regarded as 
an act of usurpation. It appeared inevitable that 
a collision between the North and the South must 
ensue, and that the strength of the government was on 
the eve of a trial. Mr. Calhoun's celebrated speech 
cannot be forgotten. He virtually pronounced the 
Union at an end. But in this he no more than repeated 



THE WHIG PARTY. 331 

his prophecy of an earlier date. Mr. Calhoun has been 
much derided, in years past, for pronouncing a dissolu- 
tion of the Union inevitable ; and, as the Union has 
continued as yet unbroken, his speeches and prognosti- 
cations are treated as unworthy of notice. But per- 
haps he who fifty years, or twenty years, or ten years 
hence, shall read the works of the American states- 
men of the age just past, will find in those of Mr. 
Calhoun the clearest insight into the spirit of the insti- 
tutions of the country, and by far the greatest foresight 
as to the tendency of the events and measures of his 
day. There was nothing dim, obscure, or shadowy, 
in his mental vision. The future to him was the 
present. He saw as in sun-light that the agitation of 
the slavery question would infallibly rupture the liga- 
ments that connect the American states. As he saw 
that this result must inevitably and certainly occur, it 
was his opinion that the South should take advantage 
of the period when she was nearly on equality with 
the North, and meet the coming issue at once ; and, if 
to be settled disastrously to the Union, have it settled 
when the South might meet the storm with less peril to 
herself. The nature of fanaticism, the objects of North- 
ern fanatics, the tendency of Northern preaching and 
lecturing, and the results to be apprehended from the 
constant outpouring from the Northern press of anti- 
slavery sentiments, were clearly, strongly and vividly 
portrayed, time and time again, in the speeches of that 
clear-minded man. The agitations of the last three or 
four years, and the present universal anti-slavery excite- 
ment of the North, are but the realizations of his early 
prophecies, for which he was, when he uttered them, 
unheeded, or regarded as wild and visionary. Nothing 
29 "" ' " r '~ "" 



332 A HISTORY OF 

but the ruin of this Union, through the agency of the 
slavery agitation, is requisite to show that Mr. Cal- 
houn was the clearest-minded man of his times, and to 
establish the wisdom of his counsel for that section 
of the country which he saw must some day become 
the victim of a fanatical crusade. Upon the occasion 
of which we are speaking, Mr. Calhoun, deciding what 
the South should do by the light of what he thought 
she ought to do, pronounced disunion inevitable. He 
saw that the North had ceased to recognize the consti- 
tutional rights of the South ; that the restoration of 
fugitives was refused ; and that the territories were to 
be closed to Southern occupation. Mr. Clay and Mr. 
Webster were at that time in the United States Senate, 
and both solemnly and earnestly admonished the country 
that the Union was in danger ; and this was the unani- 
mous opinion of every right-minded and sound-minded 
statesman in the land. 

But how idle, how futile, how uncalled-for and un- 
necessary the whole uproar of the North as to the ques- 
tion of slavery in the territories ! How strange, how 
wonderful have been the developments of Providence ! 
And how short-sighted and contemptible have appeared 
the aims and labors of our Northern people in regard to 
these territorial questions ! To such men as Clay and 
Webster the unexpected and marvellous course of 
events in California opened the first gleam of sunshine 
through the dense clouds that overhung the horizon. 
California ! — the land of gold — the fruits of the war, 
and undoubtedly the gift of Providence ! Her gold 
discoveries immediately filled her with American citi- 
zens ; and, before the quarrel about the territories was 
well under way, she was knocking for admission into 



THE WHIG PARTY. 333 

the Union as a sovereign state ! She had taken a large 
emigration from the South, as well as other parts of the 
land ; but, to the astonishment of the world, when her 
convention assembled to form a Constitution, her dele- 
gates were unanimous for the exclusion of slavery ! 
And for the proposed state a Constitution excluding 
slavery was adopted. Nearly one-half of the delegates 
in that constitutional convention were persons who 
had emigrated from the South ! The marvel of Cali- 
fornia in this respect has recently been repeated in the 
territory of Kansas. A goodly portion of the settlers 
of Kansas are from the South, and three-fifths of those 
derived from slave states are in favor of excluding 
slaves from the territory! Such facts at once divest 
Northern preaching upon the subject of slavery of all 
its importance ! The course of California threw the 
first ray of light upon the subject, and taught all reason- 
able men what reason had before suggested — that is, 
slavery is a question of climate and soil. It cannot 
exist where the Saxon race can cultivate the land, as it 
cannot compete with white labor. The negro slave has 
been moving southwards ever since the establishment 
of our independence ; and white labor will, at no very 
distant future day, crowd him still further south. 

But, in 1850, the Northern mind was busy and big 
with the destiny of the territories. The action of Cali- 
fornia had providentially opened a door for compromise. 
Mr. Clay, in the United States Senate, proposed a 
series of compromise measures which, it was thought 
and hoped, would at once and forever put the agitation 
of the slavery question in the United States at an end. 
Among other things, he proposed the admission of Cal- 
ifornia with her free Constitution ; the adoption of 



J 



334 A HISTOKY OF 

territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah on 
the principle of popular sovereignty ; the passage of a 
fugitive slave law to carry out a provision of the Con- 
stitution ; and the abolishment of the slave-trade in the 
District of Columbia. The result of these propositions 
of Mr. Clay needs no particular description. They 
were supported by that statesman by a most powerful 
and patriotic speech ; and in favor of them Mr. Webster 
made his celebrated seventh of March effort. The three 
great American statesmen were again brought together 
in the United States Senate, and signalized themselves 
by masterly efforts upon an occasion full of uncertainty, 
fear, and danger, to their country. Mr. Calhoun was 
very feeble ; his great speech was read to the Senate 
by a friend. He died the last day of March, but had 
heard the efforts of his powerful opponents. Mr. Web- 
ster was transferred from the Senate to the state 
department by Mr. Fillmore, and Mr. Clay's voice soon 
died away from the Senate, to be heard there no more. 
Neither Mr. Clay nor Mr. Webster lived to witness 

other presidential election. The death of Mr. Clay 
occurred in June, 1852, and that of Mr. Webster in 
October. 

The pacification measures of Mr. Clay were finally 
carried through both houses of Congress, and received 
the approbation of the President ; but the fiend of sec- 
tional discord was far from allayed. No one not a 
witness by personal presence can have any adequate 
conception of the true state of Northern feeling upon 
all the topics of the slavery question. Against the law 
for the restoration of fugitives the prejudices of the 
Northern people were and are very strong. This preju- 
dice was felt by Mr. Webster, and was remarked upon 



y° c 



THE WHIG PARTY. 335 

in the Senate, in July, 1850. ''It was created," he 
truly said, " by the incessant action on the public mind 
of abolition societies, abolition presses, and abolition 
lecturers. No drum-head, in the longest day's march, 
was ever more incessantly beaten and smitten, than 
public sentiment in the North has been, every month, 
and day, and hour, by the din, and roll, and rub-a-dub 
of abolition writers and abolition lecturers." It is true 
the voice of Clay and Webster was somewhat heeded 
in the United States Senate, but much less than upon 
former occasions ; and amongst the people of the North 
their influence was at an end. Of the Whig delegation 
in Congress from Massachusetts, Mr. Webster stood 
alone upon those compromise measures, and it was 
soon apparent that the old leaven of conservatism had 
departed from the Whig ranks. No candid man will 
pretend that either of these venerable statesmen had 
at all changed his opinions upon the subject of slavery, 
or did or said anything in 1850 inconsistent with the 
principles advocated by him in former years ; yet their 
course upon the compromise measures of 1850 gave 
offence to the great mass of the Whigs "of the free 
states. The usage of Mr. Webster by the people of 
the North, — of his own state, — for the positions taken 
by him in his seventh of March speech, is fresh in the 
recollection of every one. He incurred the condemna- 
tion of Massachusetts, and the censure of the whole 
North, for the most patriotic service he ever rendered 
his country. No man can point out an opinion or 
statement in that celebrated speech that is not founded 
in reason, justice and truth. His positions were all 
eminently correct, and his sentiments the very soul 
of patriotism. The unfortunate events of Mr. Polk's 
29* 



336 A HISTORY OF 

administration had involved the country in a fierce sec- 
tional controversy, that was threatening civil war and 
disunion, and Mr. Webster, in coming forward to sup- 
port measures of pacification, was not guilty of making 
improper concessions to the South ; he did not offer to 
yield any right of the North, or grant the South any- 
thing not theirs by every legal and moral principle. No ; 
his fault was in making that hated section any conces- 
sions, however justly their due. Those who have read 
and reflected upon Mr. Webster's course in that crisis 
know this very well. It was seen by intelligent men 
that if such territories as Kansas and California are not 
adapted to negro labor, it rs mockery to talk of carrying 
slaves into the sterile plains and barren heights of Utah 
and New Mexico ! Mr. Webster saw that the estab- 
lished freedom of California was the end of all legitimate 
controversy about slavery in the territories, and deemed 
it unnecessary to cover the arid mountains of New 
Mexico with Wilmot provisos. For this perhaps he 
was not particularly censured ; but for consenting to 
the enactment of a fugitive slave law he brought down 
upon himself the vengeance of the whole Freesoil and 
abolition posse of the free states. He had been guilty 
of remaining stationary in his political and moral prin- 
ciples. In the great progress around him, Mr. Webster 
had made no advance. He saw clearly that the con- 
servatism which had ever rendered the Whigs a national 
party was disappearing ; and foresaw, in fact saw, the 
dissolution and ruin of that party. He saw and felt 
the tendency of the times during the presidential cam- 
paign of 1848, and was deeply sensible of the great 
change the anti-slavery sentiment had wrought in the 
hearts of Northern Whigs, when he made his seventh 



THE WHIG PARTY. 337 

of March speech. The embarrassments of his situation 
were trying ; but he proved true to his mission, to the 
honor of his state, and to his country. He found it 
necessary to encounter the prejudices of those whom he 
loved, and he did it because he loved them. " Vera pro 
gratis ; " that is, instead of pandering agreeably to their 
peculiar sentiments, he found himself obliged to tell 
them truths. He was not so ignorant and short-sighted 
as to be unaware that his course would bring upon him 
the displeasure of the great mass of the Northern peo- 
ple ; but it was not in his power to hesitate when duty 
to his country called upon him to take his stand. 

The odium piled upon Mr. Webster for his support 
of the fugitive slave act has not yet wholly abated. 
All that he did in regard to the measure was to make 
that seventh of March speech. Every one can read his 
words, and judge of his guilt or innocence as to that 
enactment. He was clear that such a law is plainly 
demanded by the Constitution. No one denies this. 
He further gave it as his opinion that the provisions 
of the Constitution are obligatory, and ought to be 
honestly, fairly, and with good faith, carried out and 
executed. As the Constitution secures the rights of 
Southern masters to the restoration of their fugitive 
slaves, he argued that it is no more than just and 
right that those rights should be observed. This was 
the head and front of his offending ; so his offence con- 
sisted in his following the example of Washington, 
rather than espousing as a guide the modern preachers 
of a higher law, who ignore all constitutional provisions 
that contravene the law of God ! 

The history of the fugitive-slave law of 1T93, enacted 
at the recommendation of George Washington, we are 



338 A HISTOET OF 

all pretty well acquainted with. The North had labori- 
ously and most cautiously nullified its effect. Enact- 
ment after enactment had been passed by state legisla- 
tures to defeat its operation ; and, long prior to 1850, it 
had become, in the free states, completely a dead letter. 
The return of fugitives had been lectured against, writ- 
ten against, preached against, and legislated against, 
by thousands and thousands of persons who probably 
never had read the Constitution of the United States 
during their whole lives. Perhaps it is not fair to say 
that the Northern people deliberately set themselves at 
work to rob the South of their constitutional rights, for 
we know that such has not been the case. There has 
been no deliberation in the matter. The whole move- 
ment has been emotional. The understanding and con- 
science have had no part in the work. Never was any- 
thing intended but a blow in the cause of freedom ; the 
rights of others are things never considered by the 
great mass of those who have followed the hue-and-cry 
of British emissaries and American fanatics and traitors. 
Were prejudiced men capable of reason and justice, 
the people of the North would at once see and acknowl- 
edge their inconsistency and error. Fugitives from 
slavery are quite rare. The right of their capture is a 
small thing compared with the question of holding some 
three millions of negroes in bondage. Nevertheless, 
nearly one-half (perhaps more) of the Northern people 
will say at once that they are not for disturbing slavery 
in the states where located, because in these states 
slavery has the sanction of the Constitution. It is only 
in the territories, say many, that the Constitution does 
not protect the institution ; but in the slave states they 
have no desire to meddle with it. Then, if content that 



THE WHIG PARTY. 339 

such states enjoy their negroes, why is the master op- 
posed in pursuing one who escapes ; especially as the 
Constitution particularly guards and preserves the own- 
er's right to recapture such fugitive ? But so it is. 
The great mass of the Northern people have been edu- 
cated into the feeling that slaveholders must not be 
allowed to carry back their fugitives. This feeling has 
become a holy sentiment, — an item of religious faith 
amongst Northern people, — a principle for which they 
are willing to peril life and everything valuable. Con- 
stitutions, unions, laws, the highest hopes of a country 
or of mankind, form no barrier to the onward course of 
a religious idea, or a fanatical ism. The arrest of 
fugitives in Massachusetts has been tried. The people 
in a mass arise against the laws of the United States ! 
The Supreme Court of that state is appealed to (by 
habeas corpus), and its decision that the law of 1850 is 
constitutional, does not stay the resistance to the owner 
of the fugitive. Those having custody of the runaway 
under process of the general government are beset by a 
mob, and life is sacrificed ! The sentiment of the people 
arises against the slave owner ; and the population, en 
masse, go forth to obstruct a citizen of the South in the 
pursuit of his constitutional right. 

But few of the Northern people stop to consider their 
position in regard to the slave question, or to note the 
changes wrought in their feelings by the insidious influ- 
ences which have been at work upon them for years. 
And a smaller number still condescend to inquire into 
the practical utility of the measures they are induced 
to advocate, or even attempt to give any reason for 
their course but the pretended commands of God, which 
they cannot resist ; not knowing whether their labors 



340 A HISTORY OP 

will bring good or ill to the objects of their concern. 
Never on earth was a moral movement urged forward 
by the sons of men with less regard for consequences 
than the anti-slavery crusade of the present day. What 
benefit to the negroes can possibly accrue from the 
measures agitated by anti-slavery philanthropists, no 
one can imagine. The emancipation of the slaves of 
the South would be disastrous to them. There is no 
disputing this. There is no sane philanthropist in New 
England that would to-day enfranchise all the slaves in 
the United States, were the power so to do committed 
to his hands. But Northern men, with a blindness and 
prejudice befitting idiots, say no slaveholder shall come 
upon Northern soil with his negro, and retain him in 
servitude ! Indeed ! How wise and pure ! New Eng- 
land, whose money and enterprise transported Sambo 
from Africa to the South, will probably escape account- 
ability by this extreme and most holy horror of the bare 
sight of slavery ! No ; no slave must be brought to the 
North ! Slavery is well enough in its place ! It would 
be impossible to abolish it in Carolina or Georgia ; this 
is forbidden both by the welfare of the slave and the 
constitutional rights of the master ; but the poor negro 
must draw out his servile life on those Southern planta- 
tions ! The luxurious master, who annually spends 
months at Niagara, Saratoga, the White Mountains, 
and other Northern places of resort, must not bring the 
poor slave to catch a gleam of Northern happiness ! 
And why ? The puritans of the North cannot endure 
so sad a sight as a human being in bondage! Some 
good to the slave might result from spending a part of 
his time in the free states ; he might come in contact 
with genuine piety, which is thought to be a stranger 



THE WHIG PARTY. 341 

in the South ; he might gain from intercourse with 
Northern philanthropists much useful knowledge, and 
become inspired with ideas that, on his return to the 
South, would be valuable to his brethren in bondage ; 
and that portion of his life spent in the North might be 
passed more happily than if confined on the plantation 
at home ; but what holy Northern man, for the sake of 
such advantages to miserable negroes, could think of 
permitting the foul sin of slavery for a moment to offend 
his eyes ? And if one of these slaves escape to the 
North, his freedom must be upheld against the Consti- 
tution and the laws of the land ! It is seen by a glance 
that in this the benefit of the negro is not consulted, 
but sacrificed. 

How long has it been since the North has shown her- 
self so extremely cautious of her pure and unstained 
skirts ? How long have we been thus over-righteous ? 
Under Washington and our first presidents, masters 
could bring their slaves at pleasure, reside with them as 
long as they pleased, and in case of an escape, even 
while residing in the North, the fugitive would be re- 
stored by the laws of the land. Under this fraternal 
feeling existing between the citizens of different states, 
Southern gentlemen used to come into the North with 
their slaves ; and, finding life pass pleasantly, continued 
their residence here for large portions of the year. To 
guard against the abuse of this comity, — to prevent 
legalizing slavery by the master's making the Northern 
state his permanent residence under such circumstances, 
— some of the free states, to wit, Pennsylvania and New 
York, passed laws limiting the right of Southern gen- 
tlemen coming North with slaves, to a residence of six 
and nine months, with the privilege of retaining their ser- 



342 A HISTORY OF 

vants. Should a Southern gentleman continue his resi- 
dence over nine months, it was to be considered that 
his Southern residence was abandoned, and his home 
made permanent in the North, and, consequently, he 
no longer entitled to retain his slaves. Can there be a 
doubt that such an arrangement was, in a high degree, 
beneficial to both the slave and his master ? Then 
whence opposition to it ? The objection, we are told, 
is on account of the repugnance felt by the humane and 
freedom-loving people of the North to the mere sight 
of slavery. The whole movement upon this subject had 
its origin in the feelings. There is no judgment, no 
conscience, no humanity in the matter. The sentiment 
of the North has been aroused by the wiles of an enemy. 
It was the fortune or misfortune of Mr. Webster, the 
most upright and patriotic statesman of his age, to en- 
counter the fierce prejudice of the Northern people 
upon this subject. In 1852, but for his stand upon the 
rights of the South to her fugitives, he would have been 
nominated for the presidency. The friends and followers 
of Mr. Seward defeated his claims in the national con- 
vention ; and the most that could be urged against Mr. 
Vebster was that he had not changed his position on 
the slavey question, while all abound him had embraced 
new views and feelings. As an evidence of the remark- 
able change that had come over the feelings of even 
Mr. Seward, we will quote his reply to Gerrit Smith in 
1838, when a candidate for governor of New York. 
Mr. Smith demanded to know what Governor Seward 
thought of the law then existing, allowing slaveholders 
to retain their slaves in that state during a temporary 
sojourn ; and Mr. Seward answered that he was opposed 



THE WHIG PARTY. 343 

to its repeal. His answer was such as any candid man 
would make, and contains the following sensible re- 
marks : 

"But, gentlemen, being desirous to be entirely can- 
did in this communication, it is proper I should add that 
I am not convinced it would be either wise, expedient or 
humane, to declare to our fellow-citizens of the Southern or 
South-western States that if they travel to or from, or pass 
through the State of New York, they shall not bring ivilh 
them the attendants whom custom, or education, or habit, 
may have rendered necessary to them. I have not been 
able to discover any good object to be attained by such 
an act of inhospitality. It certainly can work no injury 
to us, nor can it be injurious to the unfortunate beings 
held in bondage, to permit them, once perhaps in their 
lives, and at most on occasions few and far between, to 
visit a country where slavery is unknown. I can even 
conceive of benefits to the great cause of human liberty 
from the cultivation of this intercourse with the South. 
I can imagine but one ground of objection, which is, 
that it may be regarded as an implication that this state 
sanctions slavery. If this objection were well grounded, 
I should at once condemn the law. But, in truth, the 
law does not imply any such sanction. The same stat- 
ute which, in necessary obedience to the Constitution 
of the United States as expounded, declares the excep- 
tion, condemns, in the most clear and definite terms, 
all human bondage. I will not press the considerations 
flowing from the nature of our Union, and the mutual 
concessions on which it was founded, against the pro- 
priety of such an exclusion as your question contem- 
plates, apparently for the purpose only of avoiding an 
30 



344 A HISTORY OF 

application not founded in fact, and which the history 
of our state so nobly contradicts. It is sufficient to 
say that such an exclusion could have no good effect 
practically, and would accomplish nothing in the great 
cause of human liberty " 



THE WHIG PARTY. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1852. THE PLATFORMS OF THE TWO PARTIES. — ADMIN- 
ISTRATION OF PIERCE. DOUGLAS, AND THE NEBRASKA MEASURE. 

EFFORTS IN THE NORTH. REPUBLICAN PARTY. NOMINATIONS AND 

ELECTION OF '56. — CINCINNATI CONVENTION. FREMONT. — ELEC- 
TION OF BUCHANAN. — HIS ADMINISTRATION, ETC. 

The result of the campaign of 1852 is instructive. 
That General Scott was a genuine Whig no one doubted ; 
but his nomination through the influence of the Freesoil 
wing of the party, his tacit recognition of the right 
of that wing to control his political action, and the 
emphatic and contemptuous rejection, by those who 
had been mainly instrumental in his nomination, of the 
national platform on which he had been placed at the 
Baltimore Convention, shocked and disgusted thousands 
of national Whigs, and drove them into the ranks of 
the opposition. Both the Whig and Democratic Na- 
tional Conventions had approbated the compromise 
of 1850 by their platforms. The champions of Scott 
accepted his nomination, but said, "We spit upon 
the platform." It was a declaration that a large por- 
tion of the Whig party were resolved to repudiate the 
national principles of the Baltimore Convention ; and it 
was not considered safe to throw into the hands of 
those sectionalists so powerful an instrument as the 
presidency. The national Whigs were not prepared to 



346 A HISTORY OF 

exalt to that powerful station a person who might, by 
possibility, become the organ or chief of a sectional 
faction. And the support of General Pierce, by those 
disappointed Whigs, involved but a slight sacrifice of 
principle. General Pierce and the party that nomi- 
nated him were unanimous in the support of a platform 
with scarcely any perceptible difference from that put 
forth by the Whig National Convention. It is a signifi- 
cant fact that the Democratic party have, for the last 
twenty years, been drifting back into the wholesome 
principles inaugurated by Madison and Monroe, from 
which the storm of Jacksonism had, as has been shown, 
driven them so far. The acquisitions from the Whigs 
in 1852 and 1856 have had a tendency to hasten the 
return to those conservative and valuable measures so 
necessary to our country, and so much desired by the 
patriot. But, unfortunately, the Democrats in 1852, as 
well as the Whigs, adopted, in making their nomination, 
the principle of availability, and bitter experiences have 
been the result. 

Of the administration of President Pierce, which is 
of so recent date, it is not necessary to say much. But 
few readers will care to have their opinions of that 
administration ^revised at present. The friends of the 
general look upon it as a model one ; his enemies 
regard it as fatally unfortunate. Without impeaching 
the motives of that President, which may have been 
upright and patriotic, we may say, with safety, that 
the election, in his place, of Buchanan or Marcy, would 
have saved the Democratic party from severe misfor- 
tunes, if not degradation, and the country from the 
most imminent perils. That President Pierce was actu- 
ated by high-toned national sentiments, most of his 



THE WHIG PARTY. 347 

opponents concede ; that, with some exceptions, his 
administration was conservative and judicious, is not 
denied. If there were errors, they were those of the 
head rather than of the heart. His Secretary of State, 
Mr. Marcy, was a statesman of first-rate abilities, who, 
in his administration of the foreign policy of our 
country, met the hearty approbation of every Whig. 
A man of unwavering integrity, Mr. Guthrie, was 
placed at the head of the Treasury department, quite to 
the satisfaction of every well-wisher of the country ; and 
a gentleman of known conservative principles, James 
Buchanan, was sent minister to the British court. His 
other secretaries were all able men. 

But, as the Nebraska-Kansas bubble is not entirely 
exploded j^et, and, like other bubbles, reflects from its 
magnificent sides so many dazzling hues, and still com- 
mands the gaze of millions with trance-like power, any- 
thing like a calm and reasonable consideration of its 
substance and importance could scarcely be expected. 
A few remarks touching that subject, however, will 
readily occur to every mind. The apparent object of 
the Nebraska bill has failed. The origin of the project 
was attributed to the Hon. S. A. Douglas, who had, in 
1852, been a candidate for nomination to the presidency. 
He had made, so it was said, almost superhuman 
efforts upon that occasion to secure his nomination. 
Such things were charged against him as the purchase 
of the influence of the Democratic Review, and the 
enlistment of office-seekers in his interest by liberal 
promises in way of promotion. When, therefore, the 
Nebraska bill, so called, repealing the Missouri com- 
promise restriction, was brought forward in Congress, 
and powerfully championed by Mr. Douglas, the North 
30* 



348 A HISTORY OF 

were pretty unanimous in the opinion that the move 
was political. It was generally supposed that Mr. 
Douglas was looking for support in the next National 
Convention of his party. Kansas was a rich territory, 
just opening for settlement, and it was thought that, 
by a removal of the Missouri restriction, a benefit 
would be conferred on the South. Unless that act was 
regarded as beneficial to the South, the action of 
Southern Congressmen cannot well be explained. All 
of the Democratic and many of the Whig members of 
the South supported the Nebraska bill, while it was 
opposed by all of the Whigs and a fair minority of the 
Democratic members of the North. It was said, it is 
true, that the object of the repeal of the Missouri 
restriction was to obliterate that badge of Southern 
inequality and oppression ; to wipe out a stain that had 
long rested upon Southern honor ; but, when it is recol- 
lected that that restriction, whether a stain or other- 
wise, was, by the South, though, as an escape from 
worse consequences, self-imposed, and that by the most 
brilliant statesmen she has ever produced, we can 
hardly credit that by the repeal nothing was expected 
but a victory of empty honors. The proposition added 
to the already excited feelings of the North, and was 
the watchword for renewed frenzy. And it was frenzy, 
and nothing else. This is proved by the fact that those 
who then denounced the idea of repeal, and of popular 
sovereignty, now bless the former, and glory in the 
latter. The outcry of the abolitionists of the North 
against the proposed repeal of the Missouri compromise 
was a thoughtless spasm of those who were afflicted 
with a frightful disease of the nervous system. It was 
involuntary. The judgment had no part in the action. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 349 

Every sane and sensible man in the country sees that 
the Missouri compromise restriction was originally the 
peace-offering extorted from the South by the blind 
fanaticism of the North, and should, in justice, never 
have been exacted ; but still, the conservative men of 
the North, as they knew the deranged and diseased con- 
dition of Northern minds, and well understood with 
what excitement the reopening of that old controversy 
would be attended, were grieved at the step of Mr. 
Douglas, and highly incensed against him for his course. 
This movement of Mr. Douglas, it was seen, was 
embarrassing to President Pierce. It appeared that 
Pierce had an ambition for a reelection, and no doubt 
this influenced him materially in his course. The meas- 
ure was the subject of consultations in a cabinet that 
was not harmonious. It was the on dit that Mr. Marcy 
stoutly opposed the scheme ; but, however that was, 
President Pierce gave the Nebraska bill his support, 
and it was passed. The result is known to every one. 
If the South approbate Mr. Douglas' heart in regard to 
the measure, they must, by this time, distrust his head, 
as that section has been a severe sufferer by the result. 
If intended as an offering to the South, the measure has 
turned out an acquisition to the North. However, the 
greatest calamity of the transaction falls upon the 
country. A new impulse was given to the long matur- 
ing anti-slavery feeling of the North, and the two great 
sections of the country were brought into collision with 
each other. The hatred between these sections is 
becoming extremely bitter. The excitement was fierce 
beyond precedent. Those who had been for years 
regarded as ultraists, who had been recognized as the 
special enemies of the South, were, by the commotion 



350 A HISTORY OF 

occasioned by the Nebraska bill, at once thrown into 
the lead in the great popular movements that ensued in 
the free states. The American party which, in ordinary 
times, would have become firm and imposing, was, 
almost as soon as formed, shattered by the spirit of 
abolition; and a new — the Republican — party was 
formed under the lead and auspices of the old and long- 
recognized ultraists of the North. As significant of 
what this party was, we may say that Garrisonians gave 
it their sympathies ; and many, such as Wendell Phillips 
and Miss Lucy Stone, gave it their support. Before the 
breath of the popular tornado the last vestiges of the 
Whig party disappeared, and the great and powerful 
Democratic party was razed almost to its foundations. 
A party with fearful vitality had sprung up in the 
North; it was a party based on fanaticism, — such a 
party as made Cromwell the ruler of England. Crom- 
well, it has been said, affected Puritanism for purposes of 
power ; and we cannot say but many of the Republican 
leaders embarked in that sectional organization more 
out of love for office and honors than from any real 
sympathy with the fanatical feelings of their followers. 
As to how this is we shall soon know. The presiden- 
tial campaign of 1860 will probably reveal much that 
now can only be conjectured, and we must desist. 

In 1856, the Republican party put in nomination 
John C. Fremont, a Southern-born Democrat. He had 
much celebrity as an explorer ; and his nomination, it was 
said, was a suggestion, "in a fit of prophetic fury," of 
the Hon. N. P. Banks, a brother Democrat of the free- 
trade school. The claims of Freesoil veterans were 
ignored, and availability tried in the nomination of Mr. 
Fremont. Mr. Fremont's antecedents were well known. 



THE WHIG PAETY. 351 

He had been a Democrat of the Young America stamp 
from his youth, and much of his celebrity arose from his 
coup de Fillibuster in California. But he was young 
and ambitious ; and, as it was of vast importance for the 
Republican leaders to secure to their party the presi- 
dency, he was put upon the track with no other capital 
than a letter, in which he had announced himself in favor 
of Kansas becoming a free state. What sort of Presi- 
dent Mr. Fremont would have made it is unimportant 
to consider. It was no doubt expected that he would 
be the President of those who should elect him. What 
his course would have been, or what the results of his 
election, each one may judge for himself. 

The Democrats in 1856 made their nomination at a 
convention held at Cincinnati. Never did such respon- 
sibilities rest upon a party convention in America as 
rested upon the Democratic Convention of 1856. The 
conservative feeling in America looked to it as the hope 
of the country. The ambition and efforts of Mr. Pierce 
and of Mr. Douglas for nomination were well known, 
and regarded with unfeigned apprehensions. It was 
viewed as almost certain that neither of these gentle- 
men could save the country from the impending calamity 
of the election of a sectional President ; and when the 
news of Mr. Buchanan's nomination was conveyed by 
the telegraph wires throughout the land, a sensation 
of relief and high gratification thrilled the heart of 
every conservative patriot. 

The presidential campaign of 1856 was one that 
should never be forgotten, although another such should 
never be desired. The Kansas bubble was blown to 
still grander proportions, and was the only capital on 
which the election of Fremont was sought to be effected. 
A description of that bubble must not be expected here. 



352 A HISTORY OF 

It is enough to say that, from an early period of tho 
Kansas troubles, it was perfectly apparent that she 
was destined to be free. At the time of the election of 
delegates to the Lecompton Constitutional Convention, 
there were about nine thousand registered voters in the 
territory, of which but about two thousand were in 
favor of slavery. In electing those delegates, scarcely 
any but those pro-slavery men voted, the free-state 
voters remaining away from the polls. But with such 
a vast preponderance of voters in favor of freedom, 
there cannot be any doubts about the final condition of 
that territory in regard to slavery. Whatever may 
have prompted the Freesoil electors in submitting to the 
triumph of pro-slavery delegates in the Constitutional 
Convention, there can be no doubt but, sooner or later, 
slavery will be excluded from Kansas. 

The waves of fanaticism found a barrier in the moun- 
tains of Pennsylvania. The triumph of abolition was 
prevented by those states that border upon the slave 
states. The silly delusions of Northern fanatics have 
made but little impression upon those people who live 
upon the borders of slavery, and who really know what 
opinion to entertain in regard to negroes and their 
masters. The furor of the Northern mind in respect to 
negro servitude is in consequence of its gross ignorance 
in regard to the objects of its gratuitous sympathy. 
The southern part of Ohio, where the institution is 
understood and appreciated, repudiated with indigna- 
tion the cant of British philanthropy ; and the common 
sense and patriotism of Indiana and Illinois gave a 
sturdy check to fanaticism. The patriot of Wheatland 
occupies the presidential chair, and old and new aspir- 
ants are busy at work in laying their respective tracks 
for the race of 1860. The active scenes occasioned by 



THL WHIG PARTY. 353 

the labors of these gentlemen but little distuib, it 
seems, the placid temper of the President. They did 
annoy him much, for a while, in regard to the admission 
of Kansas. His best endeavors to secure the people of 
that territory equal rights were thwarted by factionists, 
and that people are made to suffer by the intrigues of 
politicians ; but, as her overwhelming preponderance 
of free-state voters over those in favor of slavery 
clearly negatives the idea that she can ever be made a 
slave state, the prospect of making her longer the foot- 
ball of politicians is discouraging. All that is needed 
to restore the measures which once made the country 
prosperous and happy, is peace from the sectional anti- 
slavery spirit which has, for a long "time, been distract- 
ing the country, and occupying the minds of our legis- 
lators to the exclusion of higher and nobler objects. 
The efforts of our present President to allay this fiend 
of discord are appreciated by the considerate and pat- 
riotic. No one denies Mr. Buchanan eminent patriot- 
ism and statesmanship ; and every lover of his country 
must rejoice that a man of so much worth and ability is 
at the head of our government. In his administration 
we see the efficacy of intelligence and self-reliance, and 
the importance of elevating to the highest office in 
our gift men of superior ability. When Mr. Douglas 
attempted, under Mr. Buchanan, to repeat the Nebraska 
experiment in his Lecompton move, we see that the 
unconcern of the President contrasted strangely with the 
anxieties, jealousies, and fears of his predecessor under 
similar circumstances. The President relied upon his 
own judgment, and encountered the opposition of the 
little giant with little loss of sleep or of political influ- 
ence with the better class of our people. 



354 A HISTOKY OF 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE REPUBLICAN , AMERICAN AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES. — THEIR FEAT- 
URES AND CHARACTERISTICS. — DEMOCRATIC THE ONLY NATIONAL 

PARTY. NECESSITY OF A NATIONAL CONSERVATIVE OPPOSITION, 

WITHOUT WHICH THAT PARTY MUST SOON BECOME SECTIONAL. — WHIG 

PRINCIPLES, AND THE SPIRIT OF THE OLD WHIG PARTY CONSIDERED. 

THE NECESSITY OF THE REVIVAL OF THE WHIG PARTY, ETC., ETC. 

On the dissolution of the Whig party, the Whigs 
who remained true to their principles found that there 
was no party in existence with which they could cor- 
dially connect themselves. The Democratic party re- 
mained substantially unchanged. Its principles and 
tendencies were known. In many of its measures it 
differed from Whig policy ; and its tactics were not 
in accordance with Whig sentiments. Although, at 
that time, on the question that was shaking the country 
to its centre, — the question which was paramount for 
the moment to all others, — the Whig sympathized with 
the Democrat, and saw that the safety of the Union 
depended on cooperation, it was upon that great na- 
tional question only that fellowship with the Democracy 
was hearty and cordial. The Democratic party is com- 
posed of discordant elements, and is held together 
by a principle that could never be available in the Whig- 
party. There are in the Democracy conservative and 
progressive elements, which are so blended and united 
as to give conservatism more life, and to divest agrari- 



THE WHIG PARTY. 355 

anism of its aggressive and revolutionary power. In 
that party the highest patriotism and most accomplished 
statesmanship come in contact, under the momentum 
characteristic of great forces, with the fiercest dema- 
gogism ; but, not meeting, as in the Whig party, in a 
direct line of opposition, but obliquely, the force of each, 
though increased, is modified. If either act for a while 
in excess, if occasionally the demagogue power get the 
ascendency, the patriotic element does not expire ; but, 
providentially favored by outside influences, such, for 
instance, as the antagonism of the Whig party, is for- 
tunate in regaining an equilibrium. The existence of 
a conservative, enlightened and patriotic opposition 
party is the necessary condition of the existence of the 
Democracy as a national party. The extinction of the 
Federal organization, during the administration of Mon- 
roe, led to the dismemberment of the Democratic party 
in 1824, and the complete overthrow, under the dema- 
gogic Jackson- Van-Buren dynasty, of the politica 
measures established under the administrations of Mad 
ison and Monroe. Although, as now constituted, the 
Democratic party is national, its nationality is by no 
means likely to be of long continuance in the absence 
of a national opposition. 

There are at present arrayed against the Democracy 
but two parties, — the Republican and the American, — 
neither of which is a national party, supported in all 
parts of the Union by persons entertaining a similarity 
of opinions and sentiments on national questions. The 
Republican party, formed in 1855, after the passage of 
the celebrated Kansas or Nebraska Act, was not, at its 
creation, intended as a national organization. The old 
Whig party had become much degenerated from its 
31 



356 A HISTOKY OF 

original purity and tone ; and, at the first clang of the 
bugle of the pretentious disorganizer, the mass of its 
adherents broke the ranks for new banners. At the very 
instant that the preservation of Democratic conservatism 
required, more than usual, the stability and the confront- 
ing and resisting power of their old national adversaries, 
and at the moment when Democracy, from the triumph 
of its demagogue element, had shocked its conservatism, 
and had thus, on account of the disturbance of its ele- 
ments, endangered its safety, and offered the opposition 
an advantageous opportunity for victory, the ancient 
Whig party itself was rent asunder by the spirit of fanat- 
icism, as described in a former chapter. In 1852 the 
Democracy was an overwhelming party, carrying all the 
states of the Union but four. The administration of 
President Pierce had not expired before the free states 
were all substantially under the control of the opposi- 
tion. By the Nebraska measure, which resulted in the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the administration 
justly forfeited the confidence of the country ; and, in 
1856, but for the frightful aspect of that " lower deep " 
opened by the fanaticism of Republicanism, the Demo- 
cratic party would have been swallowed up in ruin. 
Destruction was averted only by the folly and madness 
of the opposition. But, although ruin was thus stayed, 
the doom due that awful iniquity yet awaits the party, 
and will overtake it, unless it make living sacrifices upon 
the altar of violated justice. The reappearance of the 
Whig party would find the Democracy with that Cain- 
mark upon its brow. The author, or at least the* chief 
engineer, of the Nebraska measure through the two 
houses of Congress, having failed in 1856, through the 
insanity of Republicanism, to destroy his party, has 



THE WHIG PARTY. 357 

since, with a peculiar tact for destructive concep- 
tions, so adjusted his course as to render the overthrow 
of the Democracy certain in 1860. His Southern 
extremes, which, in 1856, failed to consummate his pur- 
poses, will be surrendered in 1860 for the trial of an 
appeal to Northern prejudices. The Democratic party, 
it appears, is threatened with a division. If its con- 
servative and patriotic elements, in case of such dis- 
ruption, can be made available to the country by the 
reorganization of the Whig party, the ascendency of 
sectionalism may be prevented. 

The Republican party was formed by the union of 
men of all parties ; it only professed to unite those 
agreeing in sentiment on the slavery question. Its 
ranks, consequently, embrace people of all varieties of 
political faith. Mr. Fremont, like many other Dem- 
ocrats, North and South, announced himself of the 
opinion that Kansas should be left free to settle her 
own domestic institutions, and exclude slavery, if she 
should think proper ; and, in consequence of his some- 
what liberal position on that topic, was deemed by 
the Republicans a suitable candidate for the presi- 
dency. His Southern birth and thorough-bred Democ- 
racy did not seem to disqualify him for the support of 
Northern Whigs. Many of the most influential leaders 
in the Republican organization, as well as their candi- 
date for the presidency, were of the Democratic school 
in politics. The rallying cry was, " Those opposed to 
the extension of slavery." Many Whigs recoiled with 
horror from all connection with such a party. Not that 
any Whig was more in favor of the extension of slavery 
into the territories, by the general government, than 
Mr. Fremont, or the best Republican at his back ; but 



358 A HISTORY OF 

the idea of the formation of a party based on the 
slavery question could not be entertained for a moment 
by one imbued with genuine Whig sentiments. In the 
nature of things, such a party must be sectional, and 
calculated to engender the most bitter and violent sec- 
tional animosities. But, notwithstanding this, and not- 
withstanding the Republican party was headed by the 
most violent anti-slavery men, and was warmly sup- 
ported by many open and leading disunionists, — that its 
conventions, its platforms, its resolves, its orators and 
editors, continually abounded in fierce denunciations of 
the South, of Southern institutions, of the fugitive 
slave law, and of slaveholders, thus breathing a danger- 
ous sectional spirit, many honest-hearted Whigs, for 
the moment outraged by the wanton repeal of the Mis- 
souri compromise, and indignant at what they regarded 
a breach of faith by the South, suffered themselves to be 
led into that combination, which can hardly be dignified 
with the title of party. The step was rather the effect 
of passion than of the reason ; and many, in acting with 
the Republicans, feeling the impropriety of such an 
organization, premised the act with the declaration, 
" We will go with them this time." We are sorry to 
record this, — to be obliged to show that a Whig was 
ever moved by his feelings to act in defiance of his 
judgment ; but, in taking that rash step, we feel grate- 
ful to him for first surrendering the Whig name. It 
is not for a moment to be credited that Whigs can con- 
tinue to be members of a sectional party ; and it is 
easily perceived that Republicanism offers them no con- 
genial home. 

The American can never be a substitute for the Whig 
party. Many of its leaders are exalted statesmen and 



THE WHIG PARTY. 359 

patriots ; but it lacks nationality and consistency. 
Many of its teachers and high officers in the North, 
while they claim equality for the negro, — the most 
ignorant and degraded of all the races of the earth, — 
exhibit great jealousy and suspicion of their intelligent, 
economical and virtuous German brother, who brings 
from the father-land that love of home and that patriot- 
ism peculiar to the Teutonic heart. In the North, the 
American is the advocate of personal liberty bills, and 
an opponent of fugitive slave laws ; while in the South 
he may be a conservative, or even an ultra-slavery prop- 
agandist. North and South, East and West, the mem- 
bers of the American party may be concurrent in their 
views upon the subject of naturalization laws, as applied 
to all races but that of Africa, called the negro ; but 
there is not much agreement between them on the most 
of political topics. The question of the reformation of 
our naturalization laws is hardly a fit basis for a party 
organization. 

Thus we see that neither the Democratic, the Repub- 
lican, nor the American party will answer, to the Whig, 
as a substitute for the genuine Whig party. The feel- 
ings of each Whig will instinctively teach him this. 
And what could be more proper and advisable than the 
reorganization of that estimable and highly respected 
party? When this is. asked, only the interests of the 
country, and the satisfaction and pleasure of the Whigs, 
are considered. The name is excellent, suggestive of 
intelligence, virtue and patriotism. When spoken of 
here, the Whig party, as it existed in this country dur- 
ing the last years of its existence, is not referred to. 
Success, the prospects of success even, proved too 
much f~*r its poor human nature, as constituted in its 
31* 



360 A HISTORY OF 

latter days. When, therefore, we speak of Whig prin- 
ciples, we have in mind the party as it appeared in its 
period of purity. 

The Whig party of old caught its inspiration from the 
spirit of the founders of our institutions, and derived 
its principles from those statesmen and patriots over 
whose counsels the great and good Washington pre- 
sided ; and, when viewed in its purity, discloses none 
of the appearances of art and policy, contrived for the 
captivation of the masses, by pandering to their pas- 
sions and prejudices. 

Although we have a Democratic party, and our gov- 
ernment is becoming in effect democratic, it is clear 
that a democracy was not intended by the framers of 
our institutions. The reader needs not be told that a 
democracy is a government where measures are adopted 
by the direct vote of the people. Of course such a 
government cannot exist saving in small states that 
will admit of the assemblage, for the purpose of legisla- 
tion, of all the people into one forum. Such for awhile 
was the government of ancient Athens. The people 
were rulers, and ruled in their assembled omnipotence, 
without the aid of senates, legislatures or monarchs. 
The popular will, expressed by the vote of a popular 
assembly, was the supreme law of the land. The 
workings of that Athenian Democracy are familiar to 
every school-boy. If wisdom, and virtue, and justice, 
are now the possessions of the people, and the charac- 
teristics of the masses, they were not the attributes of 
the people of Athens. The men most noted for virtue, 
talents and patriotism, were banished, by popular vote, 
from the state ; and her purest citizens fell victims to 



THE WHIG PAETY. 361 

the fanaticism of the ignorant multitude. The story 
of the ancient democracies is a sad one. 

Although not flattering 'to the too much flattered 
"■ dear people/' it must be owned that the absurdity of 
the democratic system is glaring. In all communities 
are intelligence and ignorance, virtue and vice ; and 
there never yet was a very large country in which polit- 
ical wisdom resided in the majority of its people, and 
probably such a spectacle will never be witnessed. 
Thorough discipline of the moral and intellectual facul- 
ties is the rare achievement of the few ; and of the 
highly cultivated, the number of those that fathom the 
principles of the Constitution of their country is still 
less. The authors necessary for a comprehension of 
the principles of our government are never seen by one 
out of a thousand of the American people. The writings 
of Adams and Jefferson are found in large libraries, and 
are perused by but few. The able and interesting 
essays by Hamilton, Madison and Jay, — essays that 
afford a masterly exposition of republican institutions 
and their tendencies, — although published under the 
title of "The Federalist," and purchased by the wealthy, 
are far from being a popular or common work. The 
profound and lucid treatise on the Constitution, by 
Judge Story, one of our most illustrious American 
jurists, a son and ornament of Massachusetts, and the 
glory of his age, has probably never been heard of by 
the great mass of the voters in the United States. The 
" Madison Papers," as they are called, being his minutes 
of the debates in the convention that framed the Consti- 
tution, — a work that, as by a window, throws light into 
the very framework of that structure ; an authentic 
document that gives an accurate key to the meaning of 



362 A HISTORY OF 

its founders on all the exciting questions so flippantly 
settled at the present day by the million ; a sure guide 
to its spirit and force, — is found in the libraries of con- 
gressmen and some scholars ; but as a guide to political 
action is never heard of by the tens of thousands whose 
education in such matters is from Uncle Tom's Cabin and 
kindred works. To govern the country ; to adopt ap- 
propriate measures for developing its resources, for reg- 
ulating our foreign trade, establishing and maintaining 
diplomatic intercourse with other nations, adjusting a 
system of duties to afford revenue and protection, car- 
rying forward suitable works of internal improvement, 
protecting and managing the public property, govern- 
ing and preserving the navy, etc, etc., require such 
intelligence as only long-continued and attentive applica- 
tion can furnish ; and, to be plain and honest in the mat- 
ter, will the reader please state the proportion of the 
people of the United States that have ever given them- 
selves any trouble upon any of these subjects ? The 
masses of our people are not so well posted on public 
measures as were the ancient Athenians, for the reason 
that those Athenians, before voting upon any question, 
heard full discussions by their orators. It was quaintly 
remarked by Anacharsis, a Scythian traveller, who hap- 
pened to be at Athens when some measure was debated 
by her orators, and decided by the assembled masses : 
" This is a queer country, where the wise men discuss 
important measures of government, a'nd the ignorant 
decide them ! " And the remark made at Athens some 
two thousand years ago, by the shrewd Scythian, in re- 
gard to the system of the Athenian, is equally applica- 
ble now to the American Democracy, which, for the 
voice of an independent congress of our choicest and 



THE WHIG PARTY. 363 

wisest men, would substitute the voice or incongruous 
voices of the ignorant masses, as gathered from all sec- 
tions, and borne into the national legislature by repre- 
sentatives who consider the discharge of such duties a 
calling sufficiently high and honorable, provided the 
salary be remunerative ! 

The founders of our institutions sought to place them 
on a different basis, and secure, in the governing power, 
the highest intelligence, ripest wisdom, and most ex- 
alted virtue of the country. Even the executive, those 
founders intended, should, through the instrumentality 
of the college of electors, be chosen by a select number 
of the soundest men the states could produce ; and, to 
shape our policy, frame our laws, and guard our rights 
at home and abroad, it was intended that the legisla- 
ture should be composed of our wisest, best, and most 
experienced men ; and that their wisdom, and not the 
prejudices of party, should at all times prevail in the 
national councils. 

To realize and carry out these objects, contemplated 
by the founders of our institutions, is the chief aim of 
Whig principles ; and all resorts to sectional interests 
and local jealousies, and all appeals that are calculated 
to render the people the judges of what our institu- 
tions intend shall be left to the unbiassed judgment of 
their representatives, are in direct hostility to the fun- 
damental dpctrines of the Whig party. 

The slightest reflection, after even a superficial ob- 
servation of the condition of our country, will satisfy 
any candid person of ordinary ability that the recon- 
struction ofcthe Whig party is indispensable to the per- 
petuity of the Union. The Democratic party, though now 
national, if left to the sole opposition of the Republican, 



364 A HISTORY OF 

which is a sectional party, must inevitably, sooner or 
later, itself degenerate into sectionalism. This must be 
the necessary result of such antagonism. And there 
are thousands now in the Democratic, Republican, and 
American parties, who are longing, with the impatience 
of the repentant prodigal, for the appearance of a new 
organization, in whose congenial bosom they may find 
repose from their wanderings. 

But, as will at once be seen by all, a party based on 
intelligence and moral worth will be liable to encounter 
the jealousies of the ignorant and vicious, and must most 
of the time be in the minority of the country, and much of 
the time exceedingly small. This the Whigs see, and 
readily accept the conditions of their existence. It is 
not their study, their purpose, to shape their politics 
for their own interests. The acquisition of office, for 
the honors and emoluments thereof, forms no part of the 
inducements that should constitute one a Whig. The 
party was conceived in the loftiest patriotism. The 
good of the country, and that alone, was contemplated. 
In the pursuit of so noble an object, self-sacrifice, rather 
than self-interest, was the inspiration of each heart. 
An office-seeker in the ranks of the true Whig party 
would be an anomaly. As the elevation of the incom- 
petent and unworthy to high offices of trust is never 
imagined by the Whig, a proper stimulant is. offered to 
ambition for improvement, and the attainment of supe- 
rior excellence. Those who embrace that party must 
do so prompted by purely patriotic emotions ; must 
enter its ranks without hopes of personal advancement. 
In the hearts of true Whigs reigns an ardent, abiding, 
and intelligent patriotism ; as all political association 
and action are prompted solely by the love of country. 



THE WHIG PARTY. 365 

By intelligent patriotism, is meant that noble love of 
country which, as developed through the culture of the 
moral and intellectual nature, becomes an absorbing 
passion. There have been sublime examples of such 
patriotism in both ancient and modern times. Brutus, 
whose inflexible devotion to his country impelled him to 
yield his paternal to his patriotic feelings, and execute 
his own son for treason against the state, is a notable 
case of Roman virtue. But nothing in ancient history 
so well illustrates our idea of a true Whig, as the life and 
character of that noble Athenian, Aristides. The life 
of that great man is full of instances evincing a love of 
justice and of country superior to all considerations 
of self. It will be recollected that, amongst the Demo- 
crats of Athens, the competition for office was as fierce 
as ever manifested in the United States, and that office- 
holders were, by their competitors, subjected to criti- 
cism, detraction, and every species of abuse. From the 
accounts given us by history, it appears that the more 
exalted the virtue of the statesman, the surer were his 
rivals to bring upon him the jealousy and hatred of the 
people. This, though occasioned by an attribute having 
the effect of a law of nature, is, in fact, owing to a weak- 
ness of numan nature which is almost universal, — a 
weakness that has ever subjected the innocent blind to 
the wiles of the subtle and crafty. Intelligence has 
always rendered its possessor an object of suspicion and 
fear to the ignorant ; and we see that, in all ages and 
countries, superior wisdom and worth have been obliged, 
so far as popular influences have been felt, to give place 
to persons more on a level with the multitude. But 
Aristides, by a life of marked self-sacrificing probity, 
became so distinguished for equity as to acquire from 



36 G A HISTORY OF 

the people of Athens the title of The Just. As an in- 
stance illustrative of the estimation in which he was 
held by the people, the reader will recollect that his 
fellow-citizens had become so accustomed to refer to 
him their disputes, that it was finally made a grave 
charge against him, by those envious of his position, 
that he was usurping the occupation of the courts, which, 
in consequence of him, were left deserted ! And, not- 
withstanding his uprightness and justice were eminent, 
while he had the care of the government treasury, he 
was charged with frauds, peculations, and all kinds of 
corruptions. Such things are common in all countries. 
In this country we have rarely had an administration 
that has not been accused of such corruptions; and the 
reader will readily recollect the solemn and specific 
charges brought against our American Aristides, Web- 
ster, by a Mr. Ingersoll. But the officers of our gov- 
ernment have better facilities for vindicating their 
honesty, in the care of government funds, than had the 
chief treasury-officer of the Athenian Democracy. Aris- 
tides, who was charged with the custody and disburse- 
ment of the revenues of his state, necessarily had under 
him many subordinate officers, such as collectors, sub- 
treasurers, and pay-masters. As in all the Eastern 
nations, these revenue officers had, time out of mind, 
been oppressors, peculators, and plunderers. The an- 
cient systems of raising and collecting revenues, put it 
in the power of the farmers thereof, or collecting officers, 
to despoil the people, and to defraud the state, there 
having been no check but in the superior of the depart- 
ment. As might have been expected, the vigilance 
which Aristides, when at the head of the treasury, 
exercised over his officers, raised against him their 



THE WHIG PARTY. 367 

united hostility. Though his integrity was the only 
real cause of complaint by his enemies, they commenced 
and kept up against him a constant clamor for pecula- 
tion ! So large was their number, so numerous and 
respectable their connections and associations, and so 
extensive their relations and influence with society, that 
their united and continued accusations were injurious 
even to Aristides. He was publicly accused and tried 
in presence of the democracy of Athens, and convicted! 
The witnesses against him were those under-officers 
whose falsehoods there were no means of exposing.* But 
the sense of justice of the better part of the Athenian 
public was shocked at the outrageous decision. The 
sentence was not only stayed, but he was, by the active 
interposition of the best of the Athenians, continued in 
his office. After this trial, it is said that Aristides 
seemed less vigilant in regard to the frauds of his sub- 
officers, and appeared not to notice their corruptions ; 
and, as a consequence of his easy administration, his 
character for integrity was restored. His accusers be- 
came his eulogists and warm supporters, and solicited 
from the people his continuance in his responsible trust. 
As the people of Athens were about to confer that trust 
again upon him, he indignantly rebuked them, saying: 
" While I managed your finances with all the fidelity 
of an honest man, I was loaded with calumnies ; and 
now, when I suffer them to become a prey to public 
robbers, I am become a mighty good citizen ; but, I 
assure you, I am more ashamed of the present honor 
than I was of the former disgrace ; and it is with indig- 
nation and alarm that I see you esteem it more merito- 
rious to oblige a set of corrupt office-holders, than to 
take proper care of the public revenue. " 
32 



368 A HISTORY OF 

That our country abounds in patriotism no one 
doubts ;. but in how much intelligent patriotism ? And, 
if not intelligent, is that virtue of much value, especially 
in a republic ? Like paternal love, the love of country, 
unless enlightened, may be the ruin of its object. Un- 
less judicious, the son but little profits by his parent's 
affection. And of what avail to the state is the blind 
passion called love of country, unless its sphere be illu- 
minated by the light of a- cultivated understanding, and 
all the duties incident to its nature be brought into 
exercise, and be enforced ? The duties of patriotism are 
many* and severe ; but who, from the commencement to 
the close of his life, concerns himself in regard to them? 
As a general rule, we think, with the masses of our 
citizens private affairs chiefly occupy the mind and 
engage the attention, to the almost total disregard of 
public duties. Who are to take care of the republic ? 
Who are to watch over its necessities, its interests, and 
its perils ? Who can tell ? Who feel concern for the 
general welfare, — the public weal, — and take pains to 
obtain the information necessary for its protection ? 
This one is disturbed about the rights of a fugitive 
negro from a Virginia plantation ; that one is exercised 
with grief in view of the habits of his fellow-citizens in 
matters of drink ; and on their specialities — temperance 
and slavery, two subjects profoundly mastered by large 
numbers — each is ripe for public action. Many people 
have heard much of protection, and will vote for none 
but tariff men ; while others, struck with the sound/ree, 
in the term free trade, will only support such as are 
in its favor. One party will not support a candidate 
not in favor of the extension of our national boundaries ; 
another is equally intent on adhering to our country as 



THE WHIG PARTY. 369 

now bounded, without any enlargement of its area. 
On several subjects the ideas of certain people are 
fixed, and their support is a matter of passion. These 
ideas, whatever they may be, have become a bias ; 
their advocacy a matter of feeling ; and the candidate 
is expected to be as much their slave as is the deluded 
elector himself. The elector, or voter, may be native 
or foreign born, wise or ignorant, competent to judge 
intelligently on political subjects or not ; it is all the 
same ; he will trust no officer not pledged, by a liberal 
amount of professions, to sustain his views. The im- 
propriety of bringing down to such mental vassalage 
superior intellects seems to be felt and tacitly acknowl- 
edged by the multitude, in the general distrust enter- 
tained of great men as the champions of popular ideas. 
The candidate, the representative, must be one not 
capable, by possession of great abilities, of transcend- 
ing in action the intellectual sphere of his constituents, 
and of being actuated by motives and reasons beyond 
their comprehension or appreciation. He must be their 
representative in every respect. He may drag out 
long sessions in Congress ; may listen to able arguments 
by his colleagues ; may, by resort to congressional 
libraries, and by researches into the statistics of his 
country, and by mastering works of political economy, 
get better and more satisfactory light on many subjects 
than he ever before enjoyed ; but such must prove vain 
acquisitions. The prejudices of his constituents, and 
not the light evoked in halls of legislation, must be his 
guide ! 

The consequence of our democratic tendencies is, that 
our national legislature reflects the local prejudices of 
every section of the land ; is a mirror, that reflects not 



370 A HISTORY OF 

only the education of our statesmen, but the schools, 
also, in which they are tutored. Each member, instead 
of being a representative in contemplation of the Con- 
stitution, is rather a specimen of his constituents. 
Instead of a long and patient investigation of the varied 
interests of the country, — of endeavoring to master the 
principles of the Constitution, and ascertain their appli- 
cation to legislative measures, — of making himself ac- 
quainted with the numerous questions of political 
economy, — the representative only finds it necessary to 
learn to echo the predominant and perhaps temporary 
feeling or whim of his constituents ; and the acquisition 
of a knowledge of their prejudices is all the political 
education he finds necessary to enable him to fill his 
post with entire satisfaction to his electors. 

The Whig idea was the original one observed in the 
construction of our institutions ; and this would place 
the representative in the national legislature free to act 
in accordance- with the conclusions of his unbiassed 
judgment. Legislation is the exercise of a trust power, 
whose scope is not any single congressional district, 
but the whole Union. The practice of holding members 
obedient to local views and prejudices, in effect changes 
our government from a representative republic to a 
democracy. Instead of vesting the executive and legis- 
lative power in the hands of persons selected on account 
of their being most noted for wisdom and virtue, the 
ignorant and prejudiced virtually take the whole sub- 
ject of legislation into their own hands, and all that is 
required of their member is to see their purposes car- 
ried out. Any other than the Whig system must lead 
to fatal consequences. In times of great political 
excitement, especially when sectional controversies run 



THE WHIG PARTY. 371 

high, it is very clear that people of such diversified and 
opposing interests, as those associated in our Union, 
could not long remain united under institutions which 
are democratic in spirit. The people of Boston, Mass., 
or Charlestown, S. C, may think themselves safe in 
holding their representatives to a strict compliance with 
local views and feelings ; but it must be evident to the 
shallowest perceptions that without the freedom of a 
higher stand-point in legislation ; without, where in- 
terests are really conflicting, some latitude for compro- 
mise, or the privilege to the legislator of basing his 
decisions on principles of justice in view of the interests 
of all sections, when duly examined and weighed, a 
conflict of sections must inevitably take place. It is in 
view of such considerations as these that the Whig 
remains what is called an " old fogy." In times of 
" remarkable political activity," as elegantly expressed 
by the leading Republican journal of the country, not 
to make any advance with the popular tide is cause of 
grave reproach by those who are dancing in the foam 
upon the very crest of the billow. The more igno- 
rance the more zeal ; as in proportion as the reason is 
dormant the passions predominate. Under the play 
of skilful agitators, the masses will warm themselves 
into a sectional warfare much faster than the rnore- 
experienced and thoughtful, and will naturally enough 
be disposed to repose more confidence in the young and 
ardent champion of reform, whose sympathies are with 
them, than in those who, although of more experience, 
knowledge and natural ability, are less progressive, 
and too little inspired by the astonishing " political 
activity" of their time. 

Hence, as our government can only exist on the 
32* 



372 A HISTORY OF 

basis on which it was founded, and by carrying out 
the principles of its organization ; as its creation is 
perceived to have been a compromise, all sections yield- 
ing individual rights, and surrendering advantages for 
the security* and good of the whole ; as the adoption 
of democratic principles — that is, leaving to the people 
of each section to legislate or decide on national meas- 
ures — was seen by its founders to be impracticable, 
and the general government made to absorb, to a cer- 
tain extent, all local jurisdictions ; as the national 
legislature was, under the qualifications expressed in 
the Constitution, created with power absolute and 
unquestionable ; and as in the exercise of its functions 
the members should be considered as the officers, not of 
any locality, but of the whole nation, charged with 
the duty of legislating for the best good of the whole, 
it is the duty and peculiar mission of the Whig to stand 
up as a barrier against the popular tide which th£ 
breath of demagogues has put in motion ; to use his 
best efforts to resist the tendency of the country to 
sectionalism ; to endeavor to allay the strife of sectional 
feelings, which is already so fierce in the country and in 
Congress, and to make the utmost exertions to restore 
to the administration of the general government those 
national principles on which it was founded. There is 
in his mission something noble — something grateful 
to the heart of the intelligent patriot and philanthropist. 
He has not the gratification of a present passion in 
view ; but crushes out and sacrifices private feelings and 
interests, and compromises with antagonistic views, to 
secure the stability of the country, develop its resources, 
and place its future on a safe and enduring basis. His 
ideas are not. formed on partial views, nor inspired by 



THE WHIG PARTY. 373 

local interests ; but are liberal, enlarged, comprehen- 
sive, and are the growth of long-continued and mature 
reflection, drawn not only from a close examination of 
his own country, but also from the contemplation of it 
as one of the great family of nations ; from an observa- 
tion of the feelings, interests, aims and machinations of 
surrounding monarchies and despotisms, the natural 
enemies of republics ; and a study of the dangers, the 
perils, within and without, that beset the path and 
cloud the future of his beloved republic. 

The Whig is not a professional alarmist, but still deems 
it wholesome to keep the dangers that surround his 
country constantly before his eyes. The epithet, 
" Union-saver/ 7 bestowed upon him by the sectional- 
ists as a slur, he accepts as a compliment. Not that he 
would arrogantly assume patriotic achievements, but 
the attempted slur virtually accords to him patriotic 
motives. It imports that he has paid attention to the 
solemn warnings of the Farewell Address, and that the 
manifestation of fear — unnecessary fear, if the reader 
pleases — for the safety of our Union, indicates love for 
it. He is not so shallow as to believe that his beloved 
country is entirely safe and free from perils, when he 
sees abroad every power on earth arrayed against it, 
and at home beholds its integrity and unity assailed 
and warred upon by hordes of enemies, open and dis- 
guised. He loves his country ; he praises God contin- 
ually for its bestowal upon him ; he looks upon it as 
the richest gift ever before bestowed upon man ; and 
that his heart should bound in the very excitement of 
alarm, when the lightest blow is aimed at its safety, 
should not, by the honest and worthy, be made the sub- 
ject of jesting remark. And when this is with impunity 



374 A HISTORY OP 

done, we think the cause of free institutions is not very 
auspicious. 

The Whig cannot force his mind into the view that 
the administration of government is a fit subject for po- 
litical huckstering ; that the whole matter is but a mere 
game of party politics, with no nobler objects than the 
acquisition of place. He looks on government as some- 
thing more than the mere arrangement or adjustment 
of temporary interests ; as something more than present 
protection, even ; he views it as the exercise of a trust 
conferred upon him from above ; he regards govern- 
ment itself as something bestowed on him as the reward 
for moral and intellectual excellence, and which can 
only be preserved by the cultivation and continuance 
of the virtues for. the reward of which it was bestowed. 
And regarding his institutions so rare and precious, 
the Whig is astonished and shocked that any citizen 
should for a moment be so thoughtless and reckless as to 
suffer the " first dawnings ,? of a spirit that may imperil 
their stability to go unrebuked. He catches his inspir- 
ation from the Farewell Address, and shares the solici- 
tudes and anxieties, in regard to the future, of the great 
and good Washington, and recoils with horror from 
those partisans who with treasonous hands minister at 
the altar of sectional discord. 

Many may think the Whig not sufficiently hopeful ; 
but what has he to encourage him ? He is not lulled 
into apathetic confidence by the cheering expression, 
"Freedom is universal; slavery is local." For the 
Whig does not look solely at the present time, nor does 
he limit his view to one section of the globe, for lessons 
of instruction and grounds of hope ; he searches the 
records of human history for the boasted universality 



THE WHIG PARTY. 375 

of liberty, and finds, throughout the great track of time, 
scarcely a trace of its footsteps ; but, in its stead, crush- 
ing, bloody, and continued despotism. In Asia, Europe 

i and America, the record of human history is a bloody 
and a sad one ; and the Whig sees nothing in its count- 
less pages to excite his hopes in regard to his own 
country. In glancing his eye over the world, it first 
rests on the Celestial Empire, so called, which has for 
untold centuries groaned under a despotism that has 
extinguished from the heart and minds of a nation, em- 
bracing almost a third of the human family, the last 
hope or even thought of liberty. There he sees, swayed 
by one man, three hundred millions of human beings, 
who seek no law but his imperial will, and who, regard- 
ing him as not less than a deity, repose in peace under 
his rule. Then fall under his vision the Indies, with 
their different castes and races ; their successive dynas- 

• ties ; a peculiar people, from the earliest dawn of his- 
tory steeped in .the most abasing superstitions ; a theo- 
cratic despotism, the features of which are reflected in 
the bloody rites of Juggernaut ; a system of rule based 
on the bigotry of the people, and fashioned by the all- 
moulding craft of kings, lords, and priests, who, from ages 
unknown, have revelled on the sweat and blood of the 
masses; — the Persian and. Assyrian dynasties, under 
which billions of people have been the instruments and 
supports of luxurious and lustful despots ; people who, 
under the divine teachings of their priests, became the 
easy and yielding victims of oppression, with no pre- 
tensions, no aspirations for freedom, and no efforts to 
acquire it ; — the Hebrew dynasties, — the Hebrew com- 
monwealth, — institutions delivered from on high, a pre- 
cious gift to a precious, a peculiar people, for their own 



376 A HISTORY OF 

benefit; institutions, by the terms and spirit of which 
all other races were but fit subjects of Hebrew servi- 
tude ; institutions under which that people were vouch- 
safed more than usual freedom, until overthrown by the 
factions engendered by uncompromising Jewish bigotry, 
and thus the first glimmerings of liberty on earth extin- 
guished by the hot breath of fanaticism ; — Egypt, whose 
pyramids are monuments of immemorial generations of 
slavery and priestly domination ; a land that for more 
than five thousand years has never even had a dream 
of freedom ; — Europe, ancient and modern, whose count- 
less billions of civilized and barbarous people have pre- 
sented an almost unbroken scene of riotous passion, 
brutal lust, fierce fanaticism, blind bigotry, and bloody 
oppression ; whose best states, in their most palmy 
days, have only, as in a disturbed dream, shaken off 
a single for the substitution of a horde of tyrants; 
chasing away a rapacious king for a democracy still 
more rapacious ; and whose numerous races and peo- 
ples at the present day, from the huge Russian despot- 
ism on the East, to the luxurious lords of the British 
isles on the West, are but the beasts of burden that 
bear upon their backs a banded brotherhood of kings, 
flanked by a consuming priesthood, and the most crush- 
ing aristocracy the world has ever beheld ; millions of 
the children of idleness and pleasure entrenched with 
irresistible power upon the shoulders of the downtrod- 
den and toiling masses, and whose great and principal 
concern in life is, by aid of holy alliances and quintu- 
ple treaties, to perpetuate security to themselves and 
their descendants ; — the numberless hordes that inhabit 
the African continent, fifty millions in number, that have 
for ages lived in degradation and crime ; — the cannibals 



THE WHIG PARTY. 377 

of the Eastern isles ; — the savage tribes of North and 
South America ; — the scarcely animated lump of mortal- 
ity of the extreme North, the stupid Esquimaux, and 
the scarcely human form of the uncouth Patagonian, of 
the extreme South ; — yes, turn his view where he may, 
and, not only at the present day, but during all past 
ages of the world, in all parts and sections of the earth, 
he sees that men have been divided into hostile, barba- 
rous and warlike families, and that, as compared with 
the whole, the civilization of the past has been confined 
to but a small speck of the human family. He sees, he 
feels, he cannot help feeling, that the republic of the 
United States is the marvel of time, — the miracle of 
earth, — a shrub that, like the century plant, may bloom 
at stated periods, but the intervals are of such countless 
ages as to leave its nature unknown. Where in history 
have we the description of anything like this republic ? 
And it is yet but in its infancy. It has been styled an 
experiment ; and, guided by the history of the world in 
the formation of their apprehensions, our fathers may 
well have trembled for its success. At first small and fee- 
ble, and now but a speck upon the globe, — but twenty- 
five millions of freemen out of the ten hundred millions 
of human beings that inhabit the earth ! And still the 
Whig is sneered at for regarding free institutions as a 
fit matter for solicitude ! No ! the Whig, with his most 
enthusiastic political opponent, has confidence in the 
mission of his beloved country, and joins in the universal 
faith of his countrymen ; but without works, faithful, 
intelligent, and unremitting works, he has no right to 
expect that faith to be a living and saving power. 



